


It Started with a Crash Landing

by The_Wolf_Of_Winter



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-19
Updated: 2020-11-17
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:54:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 21,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25981663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Wolf_Of_Winter/pseuds/The_Wolf_Of_Winter
Summary: Emira thought her Grom night was completely ruined but a curious girl dropped out of the sky and made her forget why she was upset in the first place.
Relationships: Amity Blight & Edric Blight & Emira Blight, Amity Blight/Luz Noceda (minor), Emira Blight/Viney
Comments: 178
Kudos: 921





	1. Ritualized Teenage Fun

Emira Blight refused to cry, especially over the fact that some random stood her up. She was a Blight, even if she didn’t take it as seriously as her sister did. But she still had a reputation; star student, cool to a fault, and most of all a certified ringleader of all things mischief. But even still she felt tears burn her eyes, begging to roll down her cheeks. She despised it.

Edric wasn’t fairing much better, moping dejectedly beside her on Hexside’s gym bleachers. They were both ditched, by their Grom dates, on the same night. Em couldn’t help but wonder if bad luck affected twins equally.

“Do you think it was our fault?” she finally asked. Ed looked over at her sadly and sighed.

“You want the optimistic answer or the realistic answer?” he said quietly. She shrugged at him, mustering a downcast smile, “Give me both and I’ll take my pick.” Her brother chuckled bitterly.

“Well it’s on them, we’re obviously the catches,” he rolled his eyes. “But it probably is, our bad I mean.” Emira couldn’t stop the dark, humorless laughter that poured from her lips to only end up catching in the back of her throat.

“We’re Blights, all we do is poison anything good that comes our way,” she remarked spitefully. Ed glanced back to the dance floor, and the softest look he had all night crossed his features, he turned to her and gestured over his shoulder.

“If that was true then Mittens would be here with us,” he said with a small smile. Emira and Edric looked over at the adorable scene unfolding.

Their sister was being dragged by the excitable human girl, with Amity’s childhood friend and the young illusion track boy in tow. They stood in front of the camera, Luz had an arm around their sisters neck and a fist pumped in the air. Willow threw up peace signs, and Augustus, much like Luz, had a fist thrown in the air and the other hand clutched around a microphone. And Amity was sporting a delicate blush, and, like the rest of them a bright smile, albeit a lot shyer than her peers.

Both twins couldn’t help but grin, they’re perfect sister was finally cutting loose and being a happy kid, Emira couldn’t be more proud of her.

“Good for her,” she said softly. Edric nodded with a twinkle of pure mischief in his eyes.

“We’re so teasing her about her crush on the human right?” he smirked. Em laughed, the prospect itself would provide them practically endless entertainment.

“Give her a night to enjoy it, we don’t want to ruin her Grom as well,” she said. A look of understanding passed between them, they weren’t going to even mention their lackluster experience to their sister, not wanting to risk damping her newfound happiness.

They sat in comfortable silence, watching their sister and her friends dance together. The night was wrapping up as is, students slowly started to trickle out of the gymnasium. Waving goodbye to her friends, Amity finally made her way over to them, a lingering smile flickering across her lips.

“Hey Grom Queen, as bad as you expected?” Emira said knowingly. Her younger sister scrutinized her, trying to pick up any veiled sarcasm or teasing.

“No it was actually much better than I thought it would be,” she responded when she was satisfied that there was no hidden meaning.

“Well obviously you have a sick tiara, that’s always a win in my book,” Ed said excitedly. Amity’s gaze flicked between the two of them suspiciously.

“You two are acting really strange right now? What’s actually going on?” she said. Ed and Em exchanged a small smile.

“Nothing Mittens, we’re just happy for you,” Em said as honestly as she could, Edric nodding beside her. A spark of regret ignited in her chest when she saw the look of complete shock on her sister’s face. Emira silently debated on saying anything further but Ed cut her off.

“C’mon curfew is soon, you know how mother and father get, if they're even home,” he said resentfully. Just the mention of their parents was enough to somber the siblings, it was crushing, suffocating even. It was as if they were holding up the weight of the sky on their shoulders.

“Plus I think I have enough snails to buy us all not-dogs, if you want?” her brother asked Amity, shaking off his stupor. Mittens gave him a small smile, “I think I’d like that.”

_**~~~~~~~~~~~~~** _

Emira regretted not bringing a coat immensely as the siblings walked back to the family manor. True to his word, Ed had bought them all food and drinks, and was happily slurping. Amity was eating her not-dog as gracefully as possible while walking, taking great care to not drop anything on her dress. Em had declined her brother’s offer, her stomach felt heavy as it was from quiet rejection and embarrassment.

She couldn’t help but mull over the feeling and reflectively tense her jaw and shoulders. She despised her emotions and the person who dumped her. She didn’t even have feelings for them but she was still unreasonably hurt. Who were they to stand her up?

Before her mood could sour any further an unholy shriek forcibly shook her from her rumination. A dark blur plummeted against the stars at a surprising speed. All three of the Blight siblings watched in awed shock as the figure finally crash landed into the nearby tree line. The siblings all stood, wide eyed and open mouth, in the middle of the street, trying to figure out what had just happened.

“Ed get Mittens home,” she finally said firmly, sending him a stern look when he was about to object.

“We’ll cover for you,” Amity said determinedly. Emira sent her a grateful and proud smile over her shoulder as she took off to investigate.

Emira wasn’t sure what she expected to find when she wandered upon the disturbance, but what she found was definitely not it. A brunette was fussing over an injured griffin, drawing a dark blue circle around it’s wing. The creature caught sight of her immediately and warbled to the girl. She whirled around sharply, hands at the ready to draw upon her magic at any moment. Emira put her hands up placatingly and the girl relaxed slightly but still looked at her distrustfully.

Emira couldn’t help but admire the brunette; her hair was tied back in a bun, a spiky red band holding it in place, with her bangs framing her face, she had a silver fish hook earring in one ear with nothing on the other, distressed dark wash jeans, black combat books, a faded red t-shirt with blocky black letters reading ‘Griffins are a Girl’s Best Friend’, and to top it off she wore an old brown leather jacket. But what was most striking about her were her eyes, they were a soft emerald but held an unmistakable intelligence.

Emira cleared her throat, “I saw you crash, I just wanted to make sure everything was all right. I’m-” the girl cut her off.

“Emira Blight. I know who you are,” she said cooly. Em smiled crookedly.

“My reputation precedes me I guess? You have a name cutie?” the other girl raised an eyebrow but otherwise seemed unimpressed.

“I’m Viney, and this is Puddles,” the griffin cooed at her from behind Viney. Emira smiled, ignoring the slight hostility coming from the shorter witch.

“Pleasure to meet you Viney. Can I ask what happened?” she asked gently, not wanting to overstep her bounds, still intrigued by the girl.

“We were just going for an evening flight, to stargaze, but Puddles was more tired than she let on,” Viney said, throwing a playfully, scolding look at her griffin.

“Wait! You didn’t go to Grom?” she asked, completely shocked. Grom was the social event of the season, not going was almost unthinkable to the majority of the Hexside student body.

“Hell no! Do I look like I have a princess complex?” Viney blanched. “Grom is just ritualized teenage fun that sets an unrealistic expectation for romance and all that garbage.” Emira blinked at the girl dumbfounded, slack jawed.

“Yeah, it wasn’t all it cracked up to be,” she finally said, shooting Viney a dejected smile. The other girl had gone back to healing Puddles but stopped mid-spell to send her a disbelieving look.

“Emira Blight, the most popular girl in our grade didn’t have a good time at Grom? Can’t say I expected that,” Viney offered her a small smile, the first one she had given Em the entire night. A warm feeling spread through her chest as she smiled back.

“Don’t tell anyone, but I got stood up,” Viney raised an eyebrow. Emira took a seat next to her and shivered.

“Why are you telling me this?” Viney asked her skeptically. Em smiled at her softly.

“I don’t really know, I guess you made a good first impression,” Viney smiled at her and quickly looked away.

Emira watched Viney silently as she healed Puddles’ remaining scratches and bruises, shivering all the while. Viney finally looked over at her and worried at her bottom lip for a moment, then shrugged off her jacket and held it out to her. Em took it from her gently, but felt immensely guilty.

“Are you sure?” she asked quietly. Viney smiled at her and nodded.

“I only have a quick fly back home, I have a feeling you’ll need it more than me,” she said kindly. Emira slipped it on and was not surprised to find that it was small on her, but cherished the warmth it provided anyways.

Viney climbed onto Puddles’s back and sent her a wave as the griffin took off. Emira returned the wave and watched the girl until she could only see the silhouette of the pair. She turned back to the road and began her walk to the Blight manor.

_**~~~~~~~~~~~~~** _

Emira slipped through the front doors quietly and padded upstairs to her bedroom, unsurprised to see that both Edric and Amity had their lights still on. She knocked on both their doors quietly stepping back into the hallway. Amity opened her door first and Ed was quick to follow. Both sent her a relieved smile, but she could tell they were both curious, Ed especially could barely contain himself.

“So what’d you find?” he said excitedly. She smiled to herself, replaying the night's events back in her mind.

“Oh nothing too exciting, it was just a griffin that was too tired to keep flying,” she said as nonchalantly as possible. Neither of her siblings seemed to buy it.

“Really then where did you get that jacket?” Amity asked.

“Oh yeah! And why did it take you so long?” Ed followed.

“You’re terrible with animals, no way a griffin would let you anywhere near it!”

“True! Also why do you have that weird smile on your face?”

“GOODNIGHT!” she quickly retreated to her room, closing the door behind her. She looked down at the small leather jacket and smiled, forgetting all about her sibling’s interrogation. Emira would have to give it back to Viney at school next week, the prospect unleashed a fleet of tiny griffins in her stomach, but her smile widened, and for the first time in a really long while, she was excited for school.


	2. The Perplexing Witch that is Emira Blight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Viney finds herself vexed by a certain witch, who has taken it upon herself befriend her and gossip flies through Hexside's rumor mill.

Viney took school seriously, after all it was the first year she could study both subjects she wanted. Whatever her personal opinions of Bump may be, he did surprise her when he formally allowed Viney and her friends, Barcus, Jerbo, and Luz, to be the first multi-track kids. And for that she was grateful, so she would make sure to give him no reason to think she was slacking off, she may not be top student material but she certainly not going to let herself slip to the bottom tier.

She scribbled her notes diligently looking up at the chalkboard every so often to make sure she was caught up and stayed that way. Her eyes wandered to the clock above the doorway, her professor rarely closed the door, but it was still a shock to see a familiar witch leaning up against the lockers.

Her hair was the color of malachite, a reminder of her status in the Boiling Isles, and her eyes the color of the finest gold medallions you could possibly find in a treasure chest. She wore the same uniform as every illusion track student, but somehow did so more elegantly and expensively than everyone else, save for maybe her siblings.

Their eyes met and Emira gave her a crooked smile, that if a competent teacher saw they would keep a close eye on her. What was even more surprising than her presence in the healing ward hallway was the fact that she motioned for Viney to join her. Viney furrowed her eyebrows and attempted to refocus on the lesson, but her attention kept wandering back to the infernally distracting girl.

Emira had made herself comfortable and made no sign of leaving, pulling out her Scroll and sending Viney purposely pitiful expressions. Viney tried to be defiant, she really did, but the pleading eyes of the Blight girl were undefiable. With a petulant scowl she raised her hand and asked to go use the restroom, the teacher thankfully agreed with only a light reminder to go at the start of class.

She mumbled her apologies as she got up from her desk and trudged out the door, grabbed Emira’s wrist, ignoring the whispers of her classmates as she tugged the Blight girl down the hall. She only stopped and turned to the taller witch when she was sure they were out of earshot.

“What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be in class?” Viney asked, exasperated. Emira chuckled lightly and smirked.

“I won’t tell if you don't,” she drawled with a wink. Viney sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, not knowing what to make of Emira’s sudden friendliness.

“Fine… But if you’re skipping why come here?” Viney asked. Emira smiled at her brightly and held out the borrowed jacket.

“I wanted to return this. And to thank you again,” Emira smiled at her, almost bashfully. Viney raised her eyebrow, Emira Blight was a lot of things but shy was not one of them.

“It’s no big deal, always happy to help,” she said cautiously as she took the jacket back. Emira sent her another megawatt smile and Viney became increasingly aware of her pulse thundering in her throat as she maintained eye contact with the bewitching girl. She cleared her throat and was about to turn and leave when Emira grabbed her wrist.

“Is it true that you were in the detention track?” she asked.

“Yes I was, why does it matter?” Viney huffed.

“Well I’m a troublemaker and you were too, but that doesn’t explain why you don’t like me,” Emira said softly, eyes downcast.

“I don’t dislike you Emira, I’m just not like you,” she muttered. “I’ve never skipped class in my life, I‘ve never missed a homework assignment, and I’ve never cheated on an exam. The only reason any of us were labeled as delinquents is because we were mixing magic.”

Viney glared at the lockers, not able to look at Emira for some unknown reason. She was sure that she would lose the other girl’s attention after admitting that she was actually stickler for her education. People were like that, they lost interest as soon as they started to see that she was a little but different from the norm.  
A gentle hand curled around her chin and turned her head back to the witch in front of her.

“So you do like me?” Emira asked quietly. Viney blinked twice and started to doubled over laughing.

“Yeah you’re not the worst Blight,” she managed when she finally calmed down. Emira was looking at her with a stunned smile, looking overly pleased with herself.

“Why me?” Viney asked before she could stop herself. Emira tilted her head giving the other witch a quizzical look.

“What do you mean? Why you,” Emira exhaled cautiously. Viney gave her the shyest smile she had probably ever made.

“You’re popular and I’m obviously not, shouldn’t you want to be around the popular dimwits?” she asked, biting hard on her bottom lip nervously. Emira gave her a wide eyed look for a moment then began to shake with laughter.

“Because you’re just real.You tell it like it is, for someone so ‘popular,’ it’s refreshing. Especially since I’m used to people telling me what they think I want to hear or whatever will get them in my good graces,” Emira said and Viney couldn’t help the genuine playing across her lips.

They walked side by side to Viney’s class and stopped right before the doorway. Emira fiddled with her choker as Viney eyed her silently.

“See you around cutie?” the taller girl finally asked softly. An idea struck Viney and she couldn't help but chuckled.

“Maybe you will gorgeous,” she gave Emira one last smirk as she turned to confidently strut back to her seat. Smirking as she sat down and watched as Emira stood there for a moment red faced and confused. They locked eyes once again from across the room, Emira waved awkwardly and turned, only to almost bump into a locker as she stumbled out of view. Viney couldn’t help the small giggle that escaped, Emira Blight was not at all what she expected.

_**~~~~~~~~~~~~~** _

She took a seat at her usually table next to Jerbo, who was across from Barcus. They both sent her curious, almost prying looks. She raised her eyebrows at them and mouthed ‘what?’ They both gave her deadpanned expressions as she took out her lunch and maintained the awkward silence.

“C’mon Amity!” Luz loudly exclaimed as she dragged the very flustered younger Blight girl by the hand. “The only way to know for sure is to ask!” They approached the multi-track table and Luz plopped herself down next to Barcus pulling Amity to sit beside her.

“Heya Viney can you settle a bet between Amity and I,” Luz said, gesturing between herself and the red faced girl next to her.

“Depends, what’s the question?” she asked.

“Well, I think you and Emira are dating but Amity doesn’t,” Luz said offhandedly. Viney choked on air.

“Excuse me, what?” she sputtered.

“Wait are you serious? You two are all anyone is talking about!” Jerbo added. “Apparently a bunch of healing track kids saw you leave class to talk to her and when you came back Emira was a right mess.”

“She was giving me back my jacket!” Vinet exclaimed. Barcus scrutinized her and then let out a woof.

“Yeah! Viney you’re not helping yourself here. Why did Emira Blight have your jacket?” Jerbo asked.

“Puddles and I literally fell out of the sky last week and she just turned up, I swear!” she cried out indignantly. Amity nodded as if she had heard this before, her skin tone had finally returned to normal.

“I told you Luz, no one is brain dead enough to fall for my siblings,” she said. Luz pouted at her but then redirected her gaze back to Viney.

“So it isn’t true? Cause I could’ve sworn,” Luz said, throwing an arm around Amity’s shoulders. Viney shook her head violently as Amity turned back to crimson.

“I swear Emira and I are just friends, if you could even call us that.” Viney said. “Don’t you have better things to get caught up in? Like your own love life?” Luz looked at her confusedly.

“What love life?” she asked. All three of the multi-track kids looked at her in disbelief, Amity looked away with her arms crossed over her chest.

“Oh you sweet summer child,” Jerbo muttered next to her as Viney leaned across the table to Amity.

“My condolences. She’ll figure it out… Probably,” she whispered to Amity who gave her a halfhearted smile. Luz fidgeted in her seat, trying rather hard to look disinterested as Viney sent the younger Blight a wink.

“Well you may not be together, but Emira seems to stare at you a whole lot Viney,” Jerbo nodding his head in the direction of the notorious popular table. Sure enough she found striking gold eyes on her. Emira waved and smiled crookedly, her cheeks rapidly tinting pink. And for reasons beyond what Viney could comprehend she found herself waving back, becoming red faced as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Would you look at that? I wrote another chapter, literally a day after I wrote the first one. It felt incomplete and so far everyone seems to like it. I also feel like a lot of people write Viney as another troublemaker along with the twins, but my take on her (and Jerbo and Barcus for that matter) was that she was only in trouble for wanting to study multiple subjects. As always I'm open to suggestions, for my work or for another chapter.  
> -Wolfe


	3. A Taste of Her Own Medicine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emira is too obvious, Amity tries to get her revenge, and Edric is just confused.

“WATERMELON SUGAR HIGH” Edric sang out, horribly off key. Luz had figured how to share her human music with her friends and the Blight sisters came to regret it very quickly.

“WILL YOU SHUT IT,” Amity yelled at him, her right eye ticking dangerously. Simultaneously Emira asked, “What even is a watermelon?”

“I don’t know, probably some human thing. AND LET ME LIVE MITTENS!” Emira pinched the bridge of her nose, she often forgot who the younger sibling was.

“Em, c’mon, tell her, I am a fantastic singer,” Ed said, directing wide and pleading golden eyes on her

“Ed, people are staring,” she said rubbing her temples. They were making their way home, choosing to walk through the Boiling Isle’s flea market was now becoming an increasingly poor idea.

“Let them stare, better yet, let them kiss the ground I walk on!” he proclaimed, mimicking the snooty voice of their parents. Collective groans resounded from his sisters while he smirked proudly.

“Ooooo look, magical creatures, maybe they have bats!” Ed gasped, pulling his sisters over to the stand. He began to coo over the baby beasts, pointing out various species to Amity, while Emira shuddered in disgust from the side lines. It’s not that she hated animals, she didn’t honestly, she just wasn’t good with them and they never seemed to like her. Edric was always better with them than she was.

“Not an animal lover Blight?” a familiar snicker came from behind her. She whirled around to see a cashier with pale emerald eyes and a silver fish hook earring. Viney didn’t even try to hide her amusement in her eyes and the quirk of her lips

“Viney! You work here? I mean of course you work here, ya know, since you’re behind the counter! I’m… I’m just gonna stop talking,” Emira said flailing, her cheeks burning. She could feel both of her sibling’s stares drilling holes in the back of her skull. Viney hid a giggle behind her hand, her eyes danced with mirth.

“Yeah I work here, this is the first time I’ve seen you around though,” Viney said moving to rest her head on her arms, looking up at Emira.

“Oh, uh, we don’t usually walk this way?” she cleared her throat and fiddled with her choker awkwardly. “We wanted to take the long way, for the… fresh air.” She was sure her entire face had turned crimson, she idly wondered if it was a Blight thing.

“Yeah I get it, I’d go mental if I was stuck inside all day. Puddles too, she’d rip up the furniture and dad would skewer us both,” Viney said seriously.

“Is it just you and you’re dad?” Emira clapped a hand over her mouth. “I’m so sorry, that’s so invasive of me, forget I said anything!” Viney blinked at her but gave her a reassuring smile.

“Don’t worry about it,” Viney winked, causing Emira’s heart to stutter pitifully in her chest. “But yeah it’s just me and my dad. Mom died giving birth so I never knew her, it hurts my dad way more than it ever will for me.”

“I’m sorry, it must be hard,” Emira said softly, gazing gently at the girl.

“It can be,” Viney sighed. “But my dad’s a good guy, he’s never blamed me for what happened and loves me unconditionally so whatever struggles we have are manageable.” Emira didn’t notice that she had reached out to take Viney’s hand until she felt the other girl’s thumb brush her knuckles, sending a shiver down her spine and a searing blush to her cheeks. Viney gazed up at her through her lashes, her eyes holding a surprising fondness since they had only recently met, and worrying at her bottom lip. Emira inched forward slowly and almost imperceptibly tilted her head down, running on pure impulse and adrenaline.

“WOAH! Is that a Bazelrose Bat? Sick!” whatever spell the brunette had cast on her was unexpectedly shattered by none other than her infuriating twin. Viney whistled admiringly while Emira seethed.

“Damn… Good eye. Most people confuse it for the Petalquartz Bat,” Viney remarked. Edric shook his head excitedly.

“Yeah I guess they’re kinda similar, but I’d recognize those patterns anywhere!” he exclaimed.

“Dude I could go on about the unique stripes on their claws for like, ever,” Viney said, giddy. “You ever considered joining the Beast Keeping track? I think you’d be good at it.”

“I wish! We have super strict parents, it was either Illusion or Abomination, nothing else.” her brother said sadly.

“Well you could alway ask Bump to put you in as a multi-track, he’s become more open about that stuff more recently,” Viney suggested with a genuine smile. Ed lit up and readily agreed, chattering excitedly as Emira sulked quietly behind him, watching Viney respond animatedly about having classes together. 

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~_ **

“So what was that back there?” Amity asked her as they entered the front doors of the mansion. 

“What was what?” Emira asked innocently, refusing to meet her sister’s eyes.

“Well you were a total mess back there for starters,” Amity crossed her arms over her chest. Ed nodded and smirked.

“Yeah that was totally out of character for you Em… You thinking what I’m thinking Mittens?” he asked, smiling deviously. Amity smiled back in a striking resemblance.

“Emira has a crush, Emira has a crush.” they sing-songed obnoxiously. Emira felt her face turning bright red as she sputtered.

“Oh this is too good,” Ed cackled, Amity wheezing beside him.

“If I had known that the infallible Emira Blight could be so thrown off by a crush I would’ve had Luz introduce you to her ages ago,” Emira’s eyes narrowed and Amity clapped a hand over her mouth realizing her mistake too late.

“People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones Mittens,” Emira smirked.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Amity said crossly.

“Oh really? How many discarded Grom proposals to Luz do you have?”

“Well you looked like an incompetent idiot when you talked to Viney!”

“At least I didn’t forget my own name!”

“Well at least I didn’t ask invasive questions!”

“Seriously you-”

“GUYS!” Edric said, stepping between them. “There’s something more important right now! DO YOU THINK I’LL BE ALONE FOREVER?” he wailed.

“What the hell Ed? What does that have to do with literally anything?”

“That’s so random you absolute degenerate!”

“CHILDREN,” their father's voice echoed down the hall. The siblings froze wide eyed, exchanging apprehensive looks. The middle aged man stepped out of his study in all his finery. Emira and Edric instinctively moved in front of Amity, staring down whatever their father was about to throw at them.

“Cease your squabbling at once. What are you? Birds running around contesting each other for scraps? You’re Blights and you damn well better act like it. If I catch you acting like feral street children again I will have the staff shorten your curfew and have you back here right after school,” he proclaimed calmly, but a malicious gleam was unmistakable. “Am I understood?”

“Yes father, sorry father,” the three siblings said in unison. But their father wasn’t done, the haughty sneer on his lips gave away his disappointment.

“Your mother and I have let this behavior continue for far too long. You are the social elite, you must be good enough for the Emperor's Coven. If you do not get in you can kiss your trust funds and this manor goodbye,” he barked, making eye contact with all three of them making sure there was no room for interpretation in his meaning. He nodded his head, seemingly satisfied with berating his children yet again, and vanished back into his office.

Emira let out the breath that she hadn’t known she had been holding, hearing her siblings doing something similar. Ed and Em exchanged a look, only one more year. They had planned their departure extensively, especially on days like this. As soon as they graduated they would get the hell out of the manor, that held so many tainted memories, get their own place, and never look back. They’d take Amity too, letting her finally study whatever she wanted without eyes constantly over her shoulder. They might not even join a coven, the Owl Lady had managed for so long, even with her infamous curse, it had always been the Blight children against their world, if they got the chance for true happiness they’d fight for it tooth and nail.

Both twins put a reassuring hand on either one of Amity’s shoulders and gave her a somber smile. Emira knew that Mittens was taking it infinitely more personally than herself or Edric ever would. They all sent one last bitter look at their father’s study, Emira knew they were all cursing their luck. A verbally abusive father and an absent mother. A broken family.

They ascended the stairs, on the way to their respective bedrooms.

“Tastes like strawberries on a summer evening,” Ed sang under his breath.

“Damnit Ed! Not the time!”

“So help me, I will end you!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all my best friend just left for college out of the country and I'm stuck waiting for my senior classes... maybe that's why I'm updating this so frequently. It's fine... I'm fine... Anyway I used to do shout outs in my old works so I'm going to start it up again. So I want to say a special thanks to rainbowbunny541, WolfSpiritHunter, and LokiDoki720 for being my first comments! Also 111 kudos and 461 hits in 2 days does wonders for my motivation  
> -Wolfe


	4. Jealousy Thy Name is Emira

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Edric and Viney bond, Puddles gets a bath, and Emira wants nothing to do with any of it.

The Blight children were truly an enigma to Viney. At first glance she had passed them off as the typical attention seeking trust fund babies that got whatever they wanted. She had assumed they only wanted to hangout with the other rich elite halfwits for popularity. But when Edric transferred into her Beast Keeping class and made a beeline to sit in the empty seat next to her with a goofy smile was when Viney realized how truly wrong she was.

But she also quickly realized that Ed was a distracting force of nature that could not be ignored.

“Psst Viney,” he hissed next to her. She rolled her eyes and continued to stare at her textbook.

“Psst,” he elbowed her ribs.

“What do you wa-,” she turned to look at him. The most popular boy at Hexside had two pencils in his mouth miming fangs and a collection of sticky notes on his upper lip forming a blocky mustache. He wiggled his eyebrows absurdly with a crooked smile that mirrored the one his sister always gave her.

Viney pressed her palm to her mouth stifling her laughs, her shoulders shaking violently as she wheezed. Edric gave her a pleased smile as he tried to not snicker as well.

“Edric this is your first class period, please refrain from disturbing Viney or I will have to move you,” their teacher called from her desk.

“Sorry professor, won’t happen again,” he said coolly. The teacher nodded, seemingly satisfied, and went back to grading papers. Ed sent her a mischievous wink, Viney got the suspicion that it would very well happen again, probably in the next five minutes.

Less than a minute later, Ed passed her a sticky note with an indistinguishable drawing on it. _What the hell is that,_ she scribbled, passing the note back to him. She watched as his eyes scanned over the note and a pout formed on his lips. He furiously wrote something and then discreetly slid the sticky back to her. _It’s obviously a Slitherbeast_ . Viney scoffed lowly, _I thought it was an angry blob_ . She handed the note back to the boy next to her, who immediately scowled. _Jackass,_ was his reply.

They continued like that for the rest of class, passing silly drawings back and forth while critiquing each other’s terrible art skills until the bell rang. They gathered their things and exchanged smirks.

“Hey would you mind if I sat with you at lunch today,” Edric asked as they walked together out of class.

“Of course man. But won’t your other friends miss you?” she asked. His smile tightened and his eyes seemed to get darker.

“Naw I doubt it,” he muttered.

“Their loss then, you’re actually pretty funny,” she said, elbowing him. He immediately brightened.

“You know it! I’m comedic gold,” he proclaimed with a dramatic flourish. Viney rolled her eyes at the theatrical boy.

“If only we could do something about that ego though,” she said sarcastically, throwing him a wink to reassure him that she was joking. He placed his hand over his heart with a mocking gasp.

“I would say that’s surprisingly low of you, but you’re literally a midget so…” he said backpedaling down the hall to his next class.

“You dipshit! You’re so paying for that later,” she called after him, earning a salute in return. 

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~_ **

Viney slipped into her usual seat, throwing a smile at Jerbo and Barcus.

“So all of Hexside thinks you’re cheating on Emira with her twin brother,” Jerbo said with a chuckle.

“Damn news spreads fast in this place when it comes to the Blights,” she whistled while Barcus made an affirming noise.

“Dude seriously, I thought the earring was a dead give away that you were gay as hell,” he said grin.

“Ah shit me too. Guess I have to slit my eyebrow now, no one can ignore that,” she smirked.

“You’d look badass with an eyebrow slit,” a voice said from behind her. She turned to see Ed sauntering towards her with Emira in tow.

“Complements aren’t going to get you out of trouble mister,” she wagged a finger at him while he smirked.

“Well there’s that plan out the window,” he said sliding onto the bench across from her while Emira sat next to her, strangely quiet. She quickly introduced the twins to Jerbo and Barcus, pleasantly surprised when there wasn’t any awkwardness.

Emira was uncharacteristically downcast as she ate her food rather listlessly. Viney gently nudged her foot, Emira’s golden eyes shot up to meet hers, startled.

“ _ You okay _ ?” she mouthed at the taller witch. Emira nodded and waved a hand as if to brush off her concern. Viney narrowed her eyes and resolved to ask the other witch about it later when they were alone.

“So Viney I heard you have a pet griffin,” Edric said with an excited smile.

“Yeah I do, but she’s more of my medical assistant rather than my pet,” she said as Ed gave her an imploring look. “Would you like to meet her?”

“Yes please!” Ed cried eagerly.

“I’ve been meaning to give her a bath anyway and I could always use an extra pair of hands,” she said as Ed pumped a fist in the air. “You guys want to come too?”

“We’d love to but we already made plans with Willow and Gus, we were going to invite you but I guess you’re occupied,” Jerbo translated for Barcus who was woofing energetically.

“That’s cool, how about you Emira?” she asked.

“Oh, um, sure, I’d love to,” the other witch stuttered as the bell rang.

“Awesome meet me at the front of the school later.”

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~_ ** ****

As Viney walked down the steps of the front entrance and sure enough the Blight twins were off to the side waiting for her. She quickened her pace to meet them and the sound of Ed’s excited babbling reached her ears.

She answered Ed’s questions as they walked to the stables behind the school, to where Puddles was waiting to pick her up.

“She’s so precious,” Ed squealed when Puddles came into view. He ran up to the griffin and began to coo at her, Puddles warbled back happily. Em came to stand at her side and watched the scene unfold. Viney bumped her with her shoulder, giving her a reassuring smile.

“C’mon, I promise Puddles will love you too,” she said, grabbing Emira’s wrist and pulling her to join Ed. She gently took Emira’s hand and placed her palm on top of Puddle. She watched Emira blush and shift her weight apprehensively as Puddles stilled. Puddles quickly chirped her approval and nuzzled into Emira’s hand.

“Alright Puddles, bath time,” she said, rummaging through her backpack for the shampoo.

“Hey Ed, there’s a hose and some towels in the stable’s tack room, would you mind grabbing them for me?” Viney asked. The boy nodded excitedly and took off in the direction of the stable.

“Make sure he doesn’t get eaten by anything,” she whispered to Puddles, who quickly bounded off after him. She quickly turned to face Emira, who’s shoulders were slumped pitifully and eyes fixed on the grass.

“Is everything alright? You seem upset, did something happen?” Viney asked gently.

“No nothing. It’s just… when did you and my brother get so close?” Emira asked, rubbing her finger over her choker.

“Oh, we’re honestly not really. He transferred into one of my classes and we sat together,” Viney said bewilderedly. “Why? Does it bother you?”

“No…” Emira said, pointedly looking away and picking at her nail beds.

“Holy shit! It totally does!” Viney exclaimed. “Emira Blight, you’re absolutely jealous!”

“I am not!” Emira cried out, red rapidly coloring her cheeks as she pouted adorably. Viney stepped forward and threw her arms around the other witch’s neck, Emira stood stiffly for a moment before sliding her arms around Viney’s waist.

“I’ll let you in on a little secret,” Viney whispered. Emira leaned forward to catch her soft words.

“You’ll always be my favorite Emi,” she murmured. She heard Emira’s breath hitch and watched as her golden eyes filled with indecipherable emotion. Viney bit her lip as she smiled at the increasingly flustered girl across from her. She became increasingly aware of the magnetic force pulling her closer to the Blight girl, she tilted her head up as Em leaned down.

“Hey guys! I found the stuff,” Edric called excitedly. The two girls startled apart as though they had been burned. 

“Am I, erm, interrupting something?” he asked. Viney felt her own cheeks burning as Emira sent a scalding glare at her brother.

“No brother dearest, you’re not interrupting anything,” Emira said through gritted teeth.

“Oh ok, awesome. Are you guys ready to give Puddles a spa day?” he smiled, whether he didn’t pick up on Emira’s tone or ignored it was up for debate.

They went about cleaning off Puddle’s, spraying each other with water, and dissolving into giggles. But both Emira and Viney cast fleeting glances at each other and exchanged bashful smiles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter to the added to the ranks! I know this fanfic is about Vinira but I love Ed so much and would die for him. Let me know if you want anything special in the next couple of chapters and there's a 95% chance I'll include it somewhere. Here's a sneak peek for some upcoming chapters;  
> Grudgby Game → “I don’t wanna go” “Viney’s going to be there” “Oh would you look at that, go Banshees!"  
> Hanging out at the Knee for “training purposes”→ “Don’t you dare throw that snowba-, damnit Emi!  
> Love Potion → Gay panic hits Emira like a freight train  
> Sleepover and trying to bake, it doesn’t work out → “You have some frosting in your hair, do you want me to get it?”  
> Also thanks for the comments and a special thanks to TheOne12346.  
> -Wolfe


	5. Grudgby Gone Wrong

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emira and Viney spend some quality time together, where Edric can't possibly interrupt, but somehow still manage someone intrude on their conversation.

“Ugh Ed, do I have to?” Emira groaned, dragging her feet down the hallway. He raised an eyebrow at her and rolled his eyes.

“Em literally all our friends are going. Even Mittens is freaking going, and it’s Mittens,” he said. Em groaned again, Grudgby was boring.

“But I don’t want to,” she pouted. Edric let out a noisy exhale and rubbed his temples like a disappointed parent.

“I didn’t want to do this Em but you leave me no choice,” he said stopping dead in his tracks to make eye contact. “Viney’s going.” Emira’s disobedient look quickly morphed into one of interest, and then slowly a careful smile overtook her features.

“Wow would you look at that, I’m suddenly an avid sports fan. Go Banshees!” she did a halfhearted cheer, pumping a lazy fist in the hair. She hoped her brother took her attitude as nonchalant fighting to quash the excited fluttering in her stomach. Her and Viney, at a sports event, together (with the others, but still). She resisted the powerful urge to squeal giddily and hop around like a mad woman. Maybe she could finally get Viney alone without her idiot twin interrupting anything. Without realizing it she was full on beaming, her cheeks becoming a rosy pink.

“Em you’re not subtle,” he said, smirking triumphantly. “I’ll see you at the game then.” he promptly turned and power walked away from her to his Beast Keeping class. Em glared at his back, internally cursing her brother with the worst insults she could think of. 

“Wow Emi I haven’t seen you that mad, like ever. Your face is all red, is that a Blight thing?” a voice from her flank said. Emira whirled her head around to discover Viney standing way too close for her brain to properly function. She stumbled back, almost slamming her back into the lockers, as Viney looked on with an amused smile.

“Viney! Hi, I mean hey Viney, I mean… Hello?” she squeaked nervously as Viney hid a giggle behind her hand. 

“Hello Emira,” the other girl said. Wow… Her name never sounded so good. Whatever power Viney held over her, she simultaneously loathed and loved. Sure she had crushes before, but never like this. She normally got over her infatuation with someone in no longer than a week, and she most certainly had never lost her ability to flirt before.

“So, um, do you have class with Ed now?” she asked awkwardly, knowing damn well the answer was yes, floundering to keep the conversation going. 

“Yeah I do, I assumed you’d be walking with him, but I guess not,” Viney said, giving her a pointed look.

“That boy is a traitor, trust him with nothing,” she scowled. Viney raised an eyebrow, “He’s got you really riled up today.” Emira nodded, glaring at the door Ed disappeared into, making a mental note to pull the nastiest prank she could think of later. She felt Viney’s slim arm wrap around her waist, rubbing what were probably supposed to be calming circles on her back. The tips of her ears burned as she stood as stiff as a board, her heartbeat had kicked into overdrive and she felt like her brain was melting. She didn’t register whatever Viney was saying as she desperately tried to regain her bearings while also remembering how to walk without tripping to keep up with the other witch.

She slowly stretched her arm around Viney’s shoulders, trying to make it seem as casual as possible, her pulse roaring in her ears. She felt Viney stiffen slightly next to her, and Emira started to panic. Maybe she overstepped her bounds? Oh shit, she totally had made Viney uncomfortable. She was just about to remove her arm and try to play it off as a stretch when Viney reached up and intertwined their fingers.

It was as if Emira’s world had stopped spinning, they were holding hands! She had to remind herself how to breathe, she was so ecstatic. _Friends_ she chanted in her head until it became a mantra, she desperately tried to rope down her hopes that were soaring sky high.

They walked to the Beast Keeping class door before they detangled from each other. Viney gave her a happy wave as she walked to her seat next to Edric, just as Em was about to turn away and walk to her study, she saw Viney flick Ed’s ear and give him a scolding look.

 **_~~~~~~~~~~~~~_ **

“Do you think this will be enough to feed everyone?” Viney asked as they walked back to the bleachers during halftime. Emira glanced down at the monstrous trays of food they were carrying.

“If it’s not, they can get off their lazy asses and get some themselves,” Emira grumbled sourly. Edric had insisted on wedging himself between Viney and herself. Just as she was just about to move to sit on Viney’s other side, Jerbo plopped himself down haphazardly. Emira sethed quietly, glaring at Ed the entire first half of the game. When halftime hit both boys complained about how they were starving to death and sent Viney and Emira to get snacks for them, along with Barcus and Amity’s friends.

Viney made a tsking noise and looked like she was about to start chiding her when her tirade got interrupted before it started.

“Hey Viney,” a voice drawled from behind them. They both turned around to see the three-eyed, pink haired, Grudgby team captain spinning a ball on one finger.

“Boscha,” Emira growled. Ever since their parents had started to force Amity to hangout with that girl, Em had hated her. Emira knew that she and Ed could take their pranks and revenge too far, especially on their sister, but this girl made them look like perfect little angels. Emira recalled vividly when they were younger, Boscha and Skara had forced the siblings to practice Grudgby with her. Instead of taking it outside like the Blights wanted to, Boscha forced them to play indoors, inevitably breaking one of their mother’s favorite vases. Of course Boscha and Skara had left giggling before the siblings got the scolding of their lives thus far.

Boscha gave her a disinterested eye roll and turned her attention back to Viney.

“Hey Boscha,” Viney said, there was an edge in her voice. There was no doubt that Viney knew of Boscha’s horrendous reputation, the whole school did, Emira was just curious on how she would handle whatever venom the three-eyed witch had in store. "Was there something you wanted?"

“I was just thinking on how I’m super popular, and how you’ve also somehow become decently popular as well,” Boscha said as she checked her nails indifferently. “And you’re surprisingly attractive for someone who spends their days in the health ward and stables all day.”

“Um, thanks?” Viney asked bewildered. Emira narrowed her eyes,  _ attractive _ ? Anyone with eyes knew Viney was attractive, Em had just assumed that Boscha was too busy with her reflection to notice.

“Anyway I think you should go out with me, how about this weekend?” Boscha said with a syrupy smile. Viney blinked at her in astonishment. And Emira, well Emira was getting ready to cast an illusion that would deform the other girl in numerous awful ways.

“Uh that’s sweet of you? But no thanks,” Viney said awkwardly, glancing at Emira who smiled.

“Ooh are you taken?” Boscha asked with a falsely innocent smile, Emira clenched her fists tightly around the tray.

“No I’m single,” Viney said carefully, her eyes drifting between Boscha and Emira.

“Then what’s the harm of one date, I’m sure Em won’t mind,” she smirked.

“No. I wouldn’t mind,” Emira forced out through gritted teeth.

“Sorry Boscha, but you're not my type,” Viney said, her voice hardening. Boscha had the audacity to look offended, her eyes narrowing maliciously.

“I’m sorry but are you rejecting me? I’m everyone’s type,” she snarled.

“Not mine, I don’t date bullies,” Viney said, maintaining steadfast eye contact with the angry witch.

“You bitch, who do you think you are rejecting me?” Boscha sneered, taking a step closer. Emira immediately stepped in between the two, her tray digging into Boscha’s stomach.

“I hear you talk about her like that again I will end you,” Emira growled, making sure to draw herself to full height. Boscha chuckled darkly, her sneer never leaving her face.

“End me? What are you going to do? Run to mommy and daddy? Last time I heard they thought that you were all a mistake,” Bosca said, poking a finger into Emira’s chest with each word. Emira was so close to smashing her tray in Boscha’s face but an indignant screech cut her off.

“Oops,” Viney deadpanned. Boscha’s hair was soaking wet, her eye paint running down her face dramatically, and a downright murderous look was now present in her eyes.

“You’ll pay for that, street trash,” Boscha glowered, curling her fist. Before the situation could escalate any further the whistle blew, signaling the game was about to start up again.

“Another time then,” Viney said mockingly. Boscha stalked back to the field, throwing her Grudgby ball clear through a tree angrily.

“C’mon, I have to explain to Jerbo why his drink is missing,” Viney said softly, taking Emira’s hand. They walked back to their seats, carefully balancing their overly filled trays, hand in hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! I tried to get this chapter done a little bit earlier today so I can start working on my next work (don't worry I'm still going to continue this one). Keep a lookout on the Emira/Viney page for my Tomb Raider AU, The Search for the Lost Land of Lyonesse. It's probably going to be a lot longer than this on in terms of word count but only 8 chapters. It's definitely going to be a lot more intense as well, but I still plan on delivering that Vinira content. I'm super excited for it and I hope you guys will be too.  
> Thank you so much for all the kudos, hits, and comments!  
> -Wolfe  
> P.S. I don't hate Boscha, I think she's a fantastic antagonist and source of conflict. She makes things interesting.  
> P.P.S. I head cannon Emira as Pan, don't know why and it's not like it's super relevant but I've people on Instagram and Tumblr arguing about all the Blight kids sexualities and just wanted to add my opinion (which is not fact since there's been no confirmation)


	6. Of Sledding and Snowballs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Blights are at the Knee training but quickly get derailed when Luz and Viney show up.

“Luz will you please tell me what that board is for?” Viney asked, shivering. She had somehow been roped into trudging up a hill with an excitable human, and was starting to regret it. 

“First of all it’s called a sled, and second of all you’ll see...” the younger girl sing-songed. Viney sighed but resigned herself to whatever fate Luz had in store for her.

They neared the summit of their chosen peak and Luz took off running, Viney desperately tried to keep up, plowing through the knee deep snow. Luz had insisted that she leave Puddles at home, saying something about “getting the full human experience.” Viney was starting to tire of this human custom rather quickly. 

“Ta-da!” Luz exclaimed with a flourish. Viney gazed over the Knee, being one of the tallest points in all of the Boiling Isles, it was covered in a blanket of snow. The ruins of a colosseum-like building towered over the landscape below, framed with red fir trees and cliff sides.

“It’s a great view Luz, but what does it have to do with that… sled thing?” she asked. Luz sent her a mischievous smile and took out her notepad. She scribbled down a glyph and tapped it on the bottom of the board, Viney watched curiously as the ice spread along the surface creating a thin layer.

“For speed purposes,” Luz beamed as she dropped the sled on the ground carelessly and hopped on. Viney studied her,

“Are you sure this is safe?”

“Oh absolutely not, but worst case scenario we have to jump ship,” the human grinned maniacally. Luz patted the space on the sled behind her invitingly. Viney took a seat gingerly, giving Luz a halfhearted pout.

“If I die I’m haunting you exclusively,” she muttered sourly. Luz giggled, not taking her threat to heart. Viney gripped the edges of the board tightly as it slowly began to dip off the edge of the hill.

Luz threw her weight forward launching the sled down the slope. Wind whistled in her ears, but she didn’t dare let go to adjust her red beanie. The cold bit at all of the skin she hadn’t been able to cover. They zipped past trees at incredible speeds, almost as if they were flying. Despite being skeptical at first, Viney found that she was having just as much fun as Luz.

“Lean right!” Luz yelled over the wind. Viney did as she was told, finding that they moved over to narrowly avoid a tree. After discovering the new steering method, they utilized it fully, purposely steering towards obstacles just to swerve out of the way at the last second.

They rapidly approached the training arena and Viney’s eyes widened.

“Uh Luz?” she yelled.

“I see it!” the other girl shouted.

“What do we do?”

“JUMP!”

Viney threw herself out one side of the sled while Luz leapt to the other side. They watched as the board sailed out over the cliff’s edge before plummeting to its eventual doom. Viney and Luz made eye contact from across the snow covered field, and dissolved into fits of laughter.

“Does this belong to either of you?” she turned to see all three of the teal haired Blight siblings before them, each wearing a vastly different expression. Amity looked like she was about to pass out, quite possibly from just being in Luz’s presence. Edric looked as if he had just won a million snails, he practically vibrated with excitement and his eyes gleamed with mischief. And Emira… was holding out her beanie, with her damn near perfect crooked smile.

“It’s mine, thanks Emi,” she said smiling, taking the beanie back and fixing it on the top of her head. She really hoped that Emira wouldn’t notice her blush due to the cold. 

“What! How did you do that?” Edric finally exploded running over to Luz, with Amity in tow, leaving the older girls alone.

“It’s nice,” Emira said, eyes pointed resolutely at the ground. Viney gave her a look of startled confusion.

“What is?” she asked.

“Your hat, it’s cute,” Emira said softly, a shy smile flitting across her lips. Viney felt herself blushing again. She had caught herself doing it numerous times in the past few weeks, Emira would complement her or say something cute and the blood would rush to her face. She wasn’t an idiot, she knew exactly what it meant. However she wasn’t quite ready to admit the truth to herself just yet.

“O-oh… Thank you,” she studied her boots bashfully, not used to the sudden wave of shyness that was currently washing over her. Emira threw her a dazzling smile that made Viney’s heart positively melt.

“So what are you doing here?” she asked, hoping to shake off some of her awkwardness. A smirk replaced the smile on Em’s lips.

“Well we came out here to train but we got a little preoccupied with talking about Mitten’s feelings for our resident human,” Emira snickered.

“It is rather obvious,” she said nonchalantly. She watched as Emira’s eyes went wide, her shoulders tensing, as panic overtook her features.

“Obvious! I am not obvious! You’re obvious!” Emira squeaked as Vinet blinked, surprised by her outburst. “Oooh you meant Mittens.”

“Who else would I be talking about?” she asked. “Are you feeling alright? You’re all red.”

“Yup totally fine! So good! Oh would you look at that, Ed needs something. So we should just go over there now,” Emira spun around to practically bolt to her brother’s side as Viney looked on in concern. 

Ed was frantically asking Luz questions about the sled as Amity huddled into the human’s side, bright red but content. Viney watched Emira yawn out of the corner of her eye, the other witch rapidly growing bored of the conversation. Em inspected the snow around her carefully and glanced at Viney, her eyes dancing with pure mischief. The taller witch bent down and began to slowly roll the snow in her palms, a downright evil smile on her face.

“Emira don’t even think about it,” she hissed. Emira paid her no attention as she aimed the snowball at her. “Don’t you dare thro- dammit Emi!”

And with that started an all out free for all. With the five teenagers scattering and pelting each other with snow, laughing good naturedly all the while. Unsurprisingly Luz and Amity had teamed up against the older kids, who were hurling snow at anything that moved. At one point Emira had appeared behind the boulder she was taking shelter behind.

“Truce?” she asked. Viney didn’t hesitate before reaching up to squash a snowball on the top of the other witch’s head.

“You started this war, besides, I don’t negotiate with terrorists,” she gave Emira a wink before scrambling off to find new shelter.

As she crossed the unspoken no man’s land, Edric hurled a surprisingly fast snowball. She twisted around and closed her eyes, hoping it would miss her, but the impact hit her back, sending her stumbling forward into something. Whatever she collided with fell with her, creating a surprisingly soft landing

She opened her eyes and gasped. She was almost nose to nose with Emira freaking Blight. In all the commotion her malachite hair had escaped from her braid, framing her face beautifully. Viney was so close she could make out the tiny blue flecks in her heart stopping golden eyes. It was as if Emira was a marble statue come to life, flawless and otherworldly in every way possible.

They both exhaled, the cold caused it to turn into a puff of white mist. Viney’s gaze was inexplicably drawn to the other girl’s lips. Full and pink, she had never been so tempted by anything in her entire life. Her eyes flickered back up and she found that Emira was studying her just as intently, her pupils blown wide.

“Oooo, love on the battlefield,” Edric’s mocking brought them jarringly back to the real world. Viney reared back, stumbling off the other girl gracelessly, her face and ears burning. Emira stood and brushed the snow off of her jacket, sending her twin a resentful glower.

“I have never hated anyone more than my brother,” she heard Emira muttered crossly under her breath.

“Truce,” Viney held out her hand. Emira took it with the same evil smirk she gave earlier, it sent Viney’s heartbeat racing.

“Oh yeah, he’s done for,” Em growled playfully. 

The game ended soon after with Viney and Emira’s devastating victory over Edric and the surrender of Luz and Amity. They had all collapsed in various spots around the playing field.

Viney rested her head on Emira’s shoulder, her eyes drooping. She felt the other girl’s arm wrap around her waist, pulling her closer. As Viney snuggled into Em’s chest, her drowsiness eliminating any form of hesitation, she sighed happily. As she drifted to sleep she reveled in just how right it felt, like she was meant to be there. At that moment Viney finally admitted to herself that she had a massive crush on Emira Blight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This new episode messed me up y'all, thankfully my fanfic is staying fluffy. Also I procrastinated this chapter so much for literally no reason, we love fluctuating motivation. Thank you all so much for well over 1,000 hits and over 200 kudos, you're all so amazing! And a special thanks to Irish227 for their lovely comment!  
> Let me know your thoughts and have a great day!  
> -Wolfe


	7. No More Love Magic For You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luz messes with love potions and Viney takes the hit.

“Guys check out what I made!” Luz called from the other end of the cafeteria. Eight sets of eyes were drawn to her from their shared table. Emira and Edric had taken to sitting with the multi-track kids everyday now and somehow down the line Luz had convinced Amity, Willow, and Gus to join them.

The human excitedly bounded across to their table and held out a small vial of shimmery pink liquid, looking exceedingly proud of herself. The whole group eyed the bottle wearily, Hexside was known for teaching outlandish and more than occasionally dangerous magic, so no matter how harmless anything looked all students knew better than to trust it.

“Luz, please tell me that isn’t what I think it is,” Amity narrowed her eyes.

“It’s a love potion!” Luz exclaimed. “I’ma get me a hot date.” Emira winced on her sister's behalf, the human would figure it out eventually, and if not the twins may just give her a push. 

“Luz, we talked about this,” Willow sighed. “No taking things out of class without permission!”

Luz looked guilty as she pouted unhappily, fiddling with the uncorked bottle.

“But my date,” she whined. A slow smirk spread across Emira’s face as she cast a meaningful look towards her brother, who had a mirrored expression.

“Oh Luz I’m sure someone is just dying to go out with you,” Emira said, throwing a meaningful smile towards her sister. Mitten’s face had gone completely red as she glared at her siblings, Em had to stifle a snicker.

“Em’s right, I bet someone totally likes you” Edric said, ignoring Amity’s killing scowl. 

“What do you think Mittens?” they chorused. Luz glanced over at their sister with a oblivious expression.

“Yeah Amity, who do you think likes me,” the human asked. The twins lost it, having to swivel away and pretend to cough, this was too good!

“I, uh, well, um, I GOTTA GO!” Mitten cried as she stood abruptly, practically sprinting away from Luz.

“Amity! Wait!” Luz rushed up after her, losing her grip on the vial and sending it clattering across the table, spilling into Viney’s lap.

“Viney! Are you alright?” Emira asked worriedly, placing a hand on the other witch’s shoulder. The shimmery pink liquid had already soaked into her shirt leaving a blotchy stain. Emira watched as a dopey smile spread across her lips, her pupils were so dilated there was only a thin ring of emerald surrounding them.

“I think so, just a little dizzy. Give me a minute,” the brunette said, pressing her palms into her forehead.

“Oh that’s probably bad,” Luz muttered, temporarily forgetting to go after Amity.

“Well what do we do then!” Emira cried out, her eyes darting between the human and the doubled over witch next to her. Luz furrowed her brow in concentration,

“If I remember then it should wear off by the end of the school day.” Emira let out a relieved breath. “But the bad news is that the spell is activated by touch, so nobody… Em your hand!”

“Oh shit!” Emira mumbled, her eyes zeroing on her own hand still placed on Viney’s shoulder. The other girl’s dizzy spell seemed to have eased and she looked up at Emria adoringly. Em felt her stomach flip, her heart racing in her chest and her face growing warm. 

"What's wrong love?" Viney gave her a besotted smile and began playing with her braid, Em felt as though she was about to combust.

“Both sisters in one day! How am I getting so lucky,” Ed cackled, as his sister squirmed. Viney had draped herself over his sister and he was absolutely going to use it as blackmail in the very near future.

“Ed! Not right now, this is serious!” she meant it to sound scolding, but it came out as more of a squeaky whimper. Viney had clambered into her lap and begun to run a thumb over one of her earrings, Emira sent a wide eyed plea to those remaining at the table. Thankfully Jerbo came to her rescue.

“There’s no way they can go to class like that, Viney will murder us after this if we do,” he said. “Ed do you think you can cover for them?”

“Yeah I got it, don’t worry” he muttered, sad that his torment of his twin was ending so soon. “Where are they going to stay though? No way we can leave them here.”

“That’s simple, follow me,” Jerbo stood and motioned for them to follow his lead.

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~_ **

Jerbo led them to the old detention track classroom and grabbed some chalk. He drew a box with a keyhole on the board and twisted the chalk on top of it. A small hatch opened with a click exposing a stone hallway, lit by fairy lights, and a wooden door with a handwritten sign reading, “KEEP OUT.”

“This should be hidden enough to let this blow over,” Jerbo smiled proudly. Emira glanced between the passageway and the brunette clinging onto her arm for dear life. She gently detangled herself from Viney and climbed into the corridor, the lovestruck witch followed suit.

“Have fun Em, but not too much,” Edric snickered, sending her a wink as the door closed. She swore at him under her breath, promising herself that she would bring his slow and painful demise herself.

She pushed open the wooden door and was stunned by what she saw. The room was a cylindrical stone tower with different ornate doors covering every available surface in a jumble. A ramp spiraled around the sides of the tower to reach even the highest door.

“How did I never know about this place? This would’ve made things so much easier,” Emira grumbled as she stalked to the back wall, sliding her back down it until she was seated. Viney followed her lead, but instead seated herself in Emira’s lap with a content sigh.

“I thought they’d never leave,” the emerald eyed girl whispered, dragging her finger along Emira’s jaw. 

“Wh-what?” she asked, suppressing a shudder as Viney curled a hand around her chin, drawing the taller witch closer.

“You know what Emi,” Viney purred, pointedly biting her bottom lip, Emira’s throat went dry as she ran her tongue over her own.

“We can’t Vine,” she whispered, desperately clinging to her resolve.

“Why not? There’s no one here and I’ve seen the way you look at me,” she brushed her thumb under Emira’s lip causing her to bite back a strangled whine.

“This isn’t you,” she whispered

“Who says,” Viney murmured, drawing impossibly closer.

“You don’t feel the same,” Emira breathed out.

“You never asked, so how would you know?”

“You’re under a spell Viney!”

“I love you!”

Emira sighed, her heart did a pathetic jump, as a bittersweet feeling washed over her. She had imagined those words coming from the other girl countless times, she futilely wished they were true.

“Viney I can’t take advantage of you like this,” Em whimpered, frantically trying to increase the space between them.

“You wouldn’t be, I’d do anything for you,” the smaller girl spoke softly.

“Anything?” Emira asked, grasping at an idea as a last ditch effort to regain control. VIney nodded with a charming smile, reaching down to take Emira’s hands in her own.

“Well then I’d like for you to sit next to me,” Emira said. Viney gave her a beseeching look, but moved from her lap to sit on the ground to Emira’s left.

“I love you,” Viney muttered as she buried her face into Em’s neck. “Why don’t you believe me?”

“Tell me again when the potion wears off and I promise I’ll trust you,” Emira said miserably.

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~_** ****

By the time Jerbo and Edric had come back to check on them, Viney had fallen asleep and Emira had her head in her hands despairingly, trying her best to not cry. Edric ran over and put a comforting hand on her sister’s shoulder. She looked at him with watery eyes and he gave her a reassuring smile. Jerbo gently shook Viney awake, who started and gave him a perplexed look.

“How the hell did I get here?” the brunette asked, rubbing her temples. Emira sent her a shocked look, relief coiled in her stomach as she ignored the small spark of disappointment.

“How much do you remember?” Jerbo asked cautiously, sending a discrete look at the twins.

“Just Luz coming into lunch with her potion, then blank,” Viney shook her head, clearly frustrated at the blackout.

“Well let me tell you that potion was actually a lov-,” Emira sent an elbow into Ed’s stomach effectively cutting him off while giving Viney an innocent smile

“Sleep potion, it was a sleep potion,” she said as Jerbo nodded, Emira would have to remember to thank him later, and maybe a gift basket.

“Luz spilled it on you and we took you here.” Jerbo said. “Em stayed with you until it wore off.” Viney sent her a bright smile and leaned over, planting a small kiss on Emira’s cheek.

“Thanks Emi, that was really sweet of you,” Viney said as she got up and brushed herself off.

“Y-Yeah that’s me, um, a sw-sweetheart,” she stuttered, maybe the potion hadn’t fully worn off. 

When Viney was out of earshot, Edric leaned over and whispered to her,

“Wow you’re just about as smitten as Mittens.”

“We never speak of this.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the delay on this chapter, I got home late, had a killer headache and passed the hell out, but hopefully it was worth the wait though!  
> I also have a theory for the season finale and I hope I'm wrong. When they get Eda back (because I refuse to believe they'll sideline her in the 2nd season), she'll probably have her curse removed. But what if Eda goes back to the age she was when she was cursed, so she has no memory of Lilith's betrayal or of Luz, King, and Hooty (sometimes I wish I could forget him, but he's a boss defender so I'll give him a pass but he's on thin ice). Let me know your guy's thoughts because I'm terrified for next week.  
> Thank you so much everyone, with special shoutouts to Yonfriend, Chikifumoto, Xenon123, AnxiousSpark, and anon_lavender.  
> -Wolfe


	8. An Unexpected Guest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Viney opens the door to an unanticipated visitor.

Viney hated thunderstorms. They were obnoxious, startling, and just made her life all the more difficult. Especially when her dad was called on to stay late at the buildsite, even if it was dangerous they needed the money. That wasn’t an unusual occurrence but it was awful when she was cooped up and couldn’t risk going out for a fly.

She tugged out her bun and tossed the band to the side of her room as she went over to her backpack to rummage through it for her homework. It was Friday night so she had quite a bit of time to finish it, but with the boredom setting in she may as well be productive.

She settled into the old reclining chair in her small living room and smoothed her history homework over a binder. She had barely scribbled her name and date at the top of it when she heard a soft rap at the front door. Viney got up, a bit startled, her dad wasn’t supposed to be home until much later, if at all. And in a storm this bad he would have just unlocked the door himself, maybe he had lost his keys again?

She cautiously made her way to the front door and cracked it open.

“I thought you said- Emira?” Viney asked. The taller witch was drenched and shivering, eyeliner and mascara streaking down her cheeks as she rubbed it out of her eyes.

“H-hey Viney,” Emira said shakily. “I- Can I come in- If not I can go... “ Without hesitating Viney pulled her into her small front hall and began to fret over the distraught witch. She ran to grab a towel and draped it over the shivering girl.

“What happened to you? Viney breathed as she wiped the dark stains from under Em’s eyes and from her cheeks. Emira opened and closed her mouth repeatedly, but all that came out was a choked up gurggle, her eyes tearing up again. 

Viney took the taller girl’s hand and led her to the sofa, gently sitting her down. Silently she watched as Emira’s chest heaved and stuttered, looking up at Viney with watery eyes. She opened her arms to Emira silently with a reassuring smile, and the other girl crawled over into Viney’s lap.

She heard the sniffles before she felt the tears on her neck. Then the shuddering and the audible sobs. Viney cradled the heartbroken girl until Emira’s breathing started to even out, she pulled back slightly.

“You don’t have to tell me if you’re not comfortable,” she said softly, brushing the hair out of Emira’s face.

“Um I-,” Em took a deep breath as she fiddled with her choker. “I got into a fight with my parents… Again.”

“Oh,” she said dumbly. 

“Yeah… It’s my problem. Honestly I don't even know why I’m here, maybe I should just-” Emira moved to stand but Viney grabbed her wrist and yanked Em back into her lap.

“No it’s alright, please stay,” she said, throwing her arms around Emira, ignoring the blush that was rapidly coloring her cheeks. “Please tell me what happened baby, maybe telling someone will help.”

“O-oh um,” Emira stuttered bashfully. “W-well Ed, Amity, and I were talking about… s-stuff, sibling secrets I guess and we didn’t realize that father and mother had returned home. Th-they overheard and basically said that we were the most unsatisfactory children they could only imagine in their worst nightmares, we’d never make it anywhere near adequate positions in life if we kept… If we kept associating with ‘low-lives and beggars.’ He’s considering pulling us from Hexside.”

Viney held back a growl by clenching her jaw, already beginning to hate two people she’d hopefully would never have the displeasure of meeting. She quickly became immensely thankful for her own relationship with her father, they may have their own issues but neither had said anything remotely as discouraging to the other.

“Where are Ed and Amity? Are they safe?” she asked gently.

“Ed’s with Jerbo and I just dropped Amity off at the Owl House,” Em whimpered. “We didn’t all want to be a burden on one person, three Blights are unlucky you know.” Viney sighed and gave Emira a disapproving look.

“First of all you’ll never be a burden to me, second of all the only people who are unlucky are your asshole parents because they’ll never be a quarter as amazing as you are,” she remarked, making eye contact with the stunned witch in her lap. “You are the most incredible person I’ve ever met, even if you don’t believe right now.” She watched as Emira gave her a red faced bashful smile, her tears had completely subsided. 

“C’mon, I think I have an idea to cheer you up!”

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~_ **

“Have you literally never baked before?” Viney asked in disbelief as Emira stared over her shoulder at the cookie batter uncertainly. Viney had given her a change of clothes, her biggest pair sweatpants and one of her old oversized graphic t-shirts. Viney couldn’t help but sneak glances at the other girl from the corner of her eye, admiring how she could pull off absolutely anything, especially the clothes being her own.

“No should I have?” Em asked.

“Well I mean… You’ve never had the real baking experience,” Viney said as she dipped a finger into the dough and scooped some up to smudge onto Emira’s nose. The other girl went cross eyes and gave a gasp of mock offense, and scooped up some batter of her own to swipe across Viney’s cheek.

An all out cookie brawl ensued as dough went flying around the room. Emira hid behind the counter as Viney grabbed a cutting board to repurpose as a shield. They flung the mixture back and forth, not even remotely caring about where it stuck, even if it started to stick on the walls and cabinets. The battle finally ended when they depleted half the batter and Viney surrendered valiantly.

“You have some batter in your hair,” Viney muttered dumbly as she came back from putting the cookie dough in the oven. Emira was really a sight to behold, dough staining her clothes and her hair poking out of her braid at odd angles, her face free from makeup sporting her crooked smile that always seemed to make Viney’s heartbeat a little faster, she was beautiful. 

Viney leaned forward to pull the raw dough out of Emira’s malachite locks and winked as she popped it into her mouth. She couldn’t help but smirk as Emira’s mouth fell open in disbelief, her face going a lovely shade of red. She gently pushed Em’s jaw closed and turned to begin to clean up the furniture and the floor that had been caught in the crossfire of their miniature war.

Emira tried to help her,she really did, but it quickly became apparent that she had never cleaned a day in her life. Viney filed it away to tease her about later as she showed Em how to properly use a mop.

By the time they had finished cleaning the warm aroma of melted chocolate and cookie batter filled the air pleasantly. Standing on her tiptoes, Viney reached into a cabinet mounted to the wall and pulled out a plate as Emira snickered quietly in the background about the other witch’s small stature. Rolling her eyes, Viney began to pile the remaining cookies onto a plate, seriously considering not allowing Em to taste the result of their tireless work, but all Emira had to do was widen her eyes in a pleading fashion and jut out her bottom lip sorrowfully to melt Viney’s heart.

They walked back into the small living room and Viney placed the tray of cookies onto the coffee table. She took a seat on the sofa next to Em, much more comfortably than earlier that night, sighing contentedly.

“Hey Viney?” Emira softly asked.

“Mmhm,” Viney hummed, looking up into rich golden eyes.

“Thank you,” the other witch said bashfully, avoiding eye contact. Viney felt her smile widening as she turned Emira’s head gently to face her.

“Of course Emi, I’ll always be here for you. In whatever way you want me to be,” Viney said carefully, afraid of giving away her own feelings. It wasn’t the right time. When she confessed it had to be absolutely perfect. Not tainted by the misery the Blight parents had inflicted upon their daughter. Or interrupted by some unknowing individual. But Viney knew if she didn’t confess soon knowledge of her true feelings would get back to Emira or she would find out that she had waited too long.

“Thank you, I… It means a lot,” Emira said giving her an adoring smile that made Viney’s heart skip a beat.

They settled against each other, Emira’s arm draped around her shoulders, while Viney wrapped an arm around the other witch’s waist, drawing lazy patterns. Viney couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to always be like this, not afraid of what others thought or being too self-conscious to fully be themselves around the other.

The more Viney thought about it the more she craved it. She needed to confess her feelings, there was no longer any other option. The brunette resolved to ask out Emira Blight, she didn’t know how long it would take or what Em’s answer would even be but Viney decided that the chance was well worth it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little angsty but it was just that kind of day, hopefully it was still cute, and we're starting to get a little more plot. This chapter would've been out sooner but I've been hella distracted by rewatching Penguins of Madagascar and Danny Phantom, childhood classics.  
> Shoutouts to Interwebs_Dweller, Jess, and iacobus1 for their comments.  
> As always thank you all for reading!  
> -Wolfe


	9. If You Say 'In-Tents' One More Time

“Hey guys… Why can’t you run in a campground?” Edric asked, pressing a hand over his mouth to hide a snicker. Emira and Amity exchanged an exasperated look and refused to answer, knowing what was coming. Unfortunately their disappointed silence didn’t deter their brother in the slightest.

“You can only ran, because it’s past _tents_ ,” Ed managed to get out through his cackles. His sisters groaned behind him. He’d been like this all day, from the moment Luz had asked them to go camping in the woods by the Owl House. It was as if a switch had been flipped in his head, turning him from a functioning teenage boy to an impish gremlin. 

“I swear to the Titan Ed, if you don’t shut up I will kill you,” Amity growled while Em made a noise of agreement. A funny look replaced Ed’s laughter before it quickly reverted back to a smirk.

“Why so _tents_ Mittens?” Edric smiled, very apparently satisfied with himself. Em chucked her rolled sleeping bag at her brother, clipping his shoulder. Amity put her head in her hands, rubbing her temples, grumbling to herself how she couldn’t believe how she was related to such an idiot.

Thankfully before Ed could give voice to another horrendous pun, they came upon the clearing that Luz and Viney had agreed to meet them at. Sure enough the two witches stood engaged in some sort of discussion, Luz’s arms were flailing as Viney looked at her skeptically. Emira tried to ignore the coil of jealousy in her stomach, taking comfort in knowing that Viney would never pursue Luz romantically after seeing Amity’s obvious crush on the human.

“Viney seriously marshmallows are a gift to the world, are you sure the Boiling Isles doesn’t have them?” Luz asked, holding up a bag of multicolored pastel tubes. Viney studied them for a second before shaking her head

“Sorry dude, we definitely don’t have those. Are you sure they’re edible? They look poisonous,” Viney said, narrowing her eyes at the bag. 

“No they’re not poisonous! Amity! Do these look like they could kill you?” the human called as she caught sight of Mittens and the twins. Luz jogged over to them, Viney trailing behind her, and presented the bag for them to examine.

“Are they supposed to be that yellow? And pink for that matter?” Amity asked, taking the bag into her hands and bringing it closer to her face.

“Well they’re usually white, but these are much cuter don’t you think?” Luz said as she took the bag from Amity, brushing her fingers over Emira’s younger sister’s/

“Oh, y-yeah. Much c-cuter,” Amity squeaked, blushing to the tips of her ears. Ed and Em shared a smirk over the tops of the human and Mitten’s heads, becoming very glad they had tagged along.

“What are they even made of?” Emira asked.

“Oh um, I’m not really sure. Sugar?” Luz said, furrowing her eyebrows. Ed’s eyes lit up as he looked at the bag, suddenly incredibly interested.

“Sugar is good... Can I try one?” he asked excitedly, already reaching for the bag, only to have Luz yank it away with a teasing _tsk_.

“Later you can, I’m going to educate you on the human camping ritual of making s'mores. After we set up the tents and campfire though,” Luz said, tossing the marshmallows over on top of her sleeping bag and another opaque white bag. 

They went to work on setting up the three tents, almost immediately the Blight sisters dismissed Edric to go get firewood after he tried to use flimsy tent poles as a vault and ended up stumbling into Viney.

“Funny that Willow and Gus didn’t want to join us, I thought that they would be excited to hangout in the forest and learn about human stuff,” Luz said with a shrug. She was struggling with her purple tent as Amity desperately tried to right the damage.

“Jerbo and Barcus too, it’s weird that they're also busy,” Viney said, she was having a much easier time with her orange tent, putting it up as if it were second nature.

“We’ll just have to go again later I guess,” Luz said with a carefree smile, finally wrangling her tent into somewhat resembling Viney and Emira’s.

Ed returned with a collection of logs suspended in front of him, dropping them carelessly in the center of the three tents, and began assembling them into a somewhat feasible fire pit. Luz excitedly stepped forward to help, placing a glyph at the bottom, taping it into ignition. They had a crackling fire by the time the sun set.

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~_ **

“And that’s how you make a s’more!” Luz said as she showed off the square to each of the witchlings getting various reactions. Edric looked like he was about to go off the rails with excitement, Amity was doing her best to appear disinterested but Emira could tell she was hanging on every word, Viney was looking thoughtfully at the human, and Emira was too busy sneaking glances to bother paying attention to Luz’s technique.

The glow of the fire lit up the face of the girl next to Em, reflecting in her emerald eyes making them somehow more intense and striking then they already were. Viney had pulled her bun out as soon as the sun went down and the temperature started to drop, her hair cut in a slightly wavy A-line bob, the longest parts came to rest just above her shoulders and framed her face nicely. It reminded Em of the day she had clambered to Viney’s house after her, Amity, and Edric were practically kicked out of their house by their parents.

Sensing Emira’s gaze on her, the petite witch turned and gave her a soft smile before moving closer and tucking herself neatly into Emira’s side. Em couldn’t suppress the bright smile on her face as she focused her attention back to Luz who was now passing out marshmallows, graham crackers, and chocolate.

Luz made them all wait until they all had a s’more in front of them before giving them a nod to try the sticky snack. The response was almost instantaneous, each of the kids who grew up on the Boiling Isles made a shocked noise and devoured their s’more, nothing they had ever had even came close to compared to the strange sugary treat.

“See told ya,” Luz said, sending a wink towards Amity who promptly choked on her s’more and turned red.

“Mmmmff” Ed said uninteligablly, stuffing uncooked marshmallows and chocolate into his mouth happily. Viney and Emira shared a second one as Amity offered some more to Luz shyly. 

“So who’s sleeping where?” Ed asked, his voice was up and octave and he hopped around suped up on a sugar high. “Em you rooming with me?”

Emira blinked at her brother disbelievingly before saying, “Ed in the nicest possible way, I’d rather die than sleep anywhere near you when you’re like this.”

“You can share my tent if you’d like,” Viney said smiling at her, Em felt the tips of her ears heat up.

“Oh, um, thanks! That’d, erm, that’d be great,” she said, internallying cursing herself for the sudden surge of awkwardness.

“Amity you’ll share with me, right?” Luz asked Mittens brightly, who barely managed to nod as she melted into a puddle at the human’s feet.

“Score! I get a- I get a tent to myself,” Edric’s cheer was interrupted by a yawn, his hyperness suddenly deserting him, which Emira was immensely thankful for.

Soon after they decided to head to bed, bidding each other goodnight before zipping up their respective tents.

“Would you look at that, this is really in- _tents_! Get it because we’re really in tents!”

“GOODNIGHT ED!”

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~_ **

Emira woke in the inky darkness to the sounds of shuffling outside her tent. She held back a gasp as she turned over to see if Viney was awake. Sure enough she saw the brunette’s wide eyes and met her fearful gaze with one to match. As if some unspoken agreement had been made their fingers intertwined in the darkness, Emira couldn’t bring herself to feel embarrassed as the noises of the creature outside grew louder. Viney squeezed Em’s hand comfortingly when she felt the golden eyed witch begin to tremble slightly.

Eventually the unknown assailant quieted down and moved on, but it took another ten minutes before Emira let out the breath she had been holding in.

“What the everloving hell was that?” Viney finally whispered to her.

“I have no idea,” Emira whispered back, unable to keep her voice from trembling.

“Are you okay?” Viny asked her, Emira shook her head.

“Let’s just say I probably won’t be sleeping again tonight,” she sighed. They sat in silence for a moment until she heard Viney struggle out of her sleeping bag and tucked herself into Emira’s.

“Is this alright?” the brunette asked. Emira’s heart went into overdrive, but she pressed closer to Viney anyway, wrapping her arms around the shorter witch’s waist, relishing the comforting warmth that was now provided. Viney wrapped her arms around Emira's neck and smiled into her shoulder, gently stroking Em's hair. 

“This is perfect.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, I know, it's been forever since I updated this, trust me I feel it too. I've been weirdly busy considering I literally have no life. But I'm finally getting a new laptop (it's been a struggle, my old one broke a month ago cause the motherboard literally fried), so I should be able to upload sooner without dealing with a finicky computer that I borrowed from my parents.
> 
> I've also updated my other Vinira fic, The Search for the Lost Land of Lyonesse. If you guys enjoy my writing style, are looking for a more plot driven story, and like action/adventures it might be worth checking out. Obviously only if you want to, but it would definitely mean a lot!
> 
> I was also considering ending this fanfic when Em and Viney finally get together but if I get enough comments wanting me to continue on I will, but it's up to you guys!
> 
> Shoutouts for the week go to crazywolf828, TRANS_MERMAN_namedKORI, WarblyZombie, PokeGothGf, HuntressOfWonderland, Allhomo, and thatlazyperson for all their amazing comments!  
> -Wolfe 🐺


	10. Flying? This is just Falling with Style

Today was the day. Viney was going to ask out Emira Blight if it killed her, but knowing the Boiling Isles it was quite possible. The fear of rejection nawed at the back of her mind, only enough to hold her back slightly. Viney knew how she felt about Emira, and she had seen enough signs that Em might feel the same. Hope was more present than fear and if she didn’t tell Emira now she might explode. 

The bell rang and she made up her mind as she packed up her healing textbooks. In the weeks she had spent with Emira Blight, Viney had seen that the other witch was far more than her reputation. Sure, she was mischievous, popular, and exceedingly rich, but she was also caring, adorable, and frankly a good person. Viney had seen her cry for Titan’s sake, she knew none of her classmates could say the same.

She walked out the classroom door and smiled when she saw Emira leaning against the lockers. It had become a routine for them, Em would walk Viney to class and they would have sometime, even if it was just five minutes, to talk to each other without anyone else interfering. It was amazing, even if Edric always teased her when she got into their Beast Keeping class, he did nothing to damper her mood.

“Morning cutie!” Em exclaimed when she looked up, smiling her crooked smile that never failed to make Viney’s heart rate pick up. “How was class?”

“The usual, but the professor got attacked by his own bandages… You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that would you?” Viney smirked, linking an arm with the taller girl who snickered.

“I can’t confirm or deny anything,” Em said winking. Viney sighed in mock exaggeration, secretly hiding a smile, knowing if Emira found out that she found the absurd pranks kind of endearing they would never end.

They approached the next class and Viney couldn’t help but hesitate, knowing what she needed to ask the other witch.

“Hey Emi?” she asked apprehensively. The golden eyed girl tilted her head to look at her curiously. “What’s up Vine?”

Viney glanced at the classroom door and the prying gazes of the students inside, she sighed in defeat. Not the time.

“It’s nothing, I’ll ask you later,” she muttered, waving a hand as if to dissipate her own disappointment. She waved goodbye to Emira and walked into class, taking a seat next to Edric. She watched Emira turn the corner, her braid swinging behind her. Ed nudged her.

“Someone has a crush!” he sing-songed, making kissy faces at her obnoxiously. 

“No shit, it’s not like you say the same thing every time I come in here,” the brunette deadpanned. “We’ve established that I have feelings for your sister, now do you want to move onto something more original?” Ed gave her a mock pout but otherwise remained undeterred, mischief glinting in his eyes.

“Something more original” he said tapping his chin thoughtfully. “I know! When are you going to ask her out?” Viney stiffened and pointedly looked at the blackboard, annoyed that their teacher still hadn’t showed up to save her. Edric chuckled playfully, Viney cursed herself for giving him even more leverage.

“You should just do it, what’s the worst that could happen?” he asked.

“Oh I don’t know, she doesn’t feel the same? I lose my new best friend?” Viney glared at him.

“You and I both know Em isn’t going to ditch you if you confess,” he said, surprisingly patient. “And besides you know I can’t say anything, sibling code or whatever, but whatever happens I think things will be even better once you ask.”

“That was astonishingly smart of you Edric Blight,” Viney smiled.

“I know I’m a genius!” Ed flippantly said, eyeing his sticky notes. “Now with that out of the way, you want to see how many of these I can fit in my mouth?”

“And the dumbass is back…” 

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~_ **

“Hey Em, do you want to go flying with me and Puddles later?” she blurted. Lunch was just about to end and she couldn’t contain herself anymore. Emira smiled brightly at her, while Ed hid a thumbs up from his sister’s side.

“I’d love to! After school?” the other girl asked.

“Uh yes… yup… after school… see you,” Viney said as Em turned and began to walk away with her brother. She heard Jerbo and Barcus snickers from behind her, if her face wasn’t bright red already it sure as hell was now.

“Smooth casanova, real smooth,” Jerbo chuckled, earning himself a light punch to the shoulder.

“Shut up, at least I did it!” she muttered. Her heart was already beating wildly in anticipation.

The rest of the day passed sluggishly, and in that time Viney’s nerves had reached uncharted levels. It was just Emira, she tried to tell herself, but thinking of the other girl made her pulse spike. She found herself practically sprinting out of class and down the front steps, almost ramming into a certain malachite haired girl.

“What’s the rush?” Emira smirked. “Excited to see me?”

“I’m so sorry, I wasn’t looking,” Viney blushed, looking down at her feet. This was going pretty much the way she imagined.

“Don't worry about it,” Em dropped her voice and whispered conspiringly. “I was excited too.”

Viney’s heart just about burst when the taller witch winked at her, what was wrong with her? Sure, she’s been aware of her own feelings for the pretty girl in front of her for weeks, but they had never rendered her this useless before! Was it because she was finally going to ask Em out? Or was it because the other girl had cast some spell over Viney. Golden eyes and crooked smiles seemed to be all that she thought about recently, and as inconvenient as it could be, Viney couldn’t bring herself to hate the feeling.

“E-excited? For, uh, what?” she asked dumbly.

“To finally fly with you! We’ve been _friends_ for a while now and I was kind of waiting for you to offer,” Emira smiled brightly, but Viney couldn’t focus on anything but the twist in her gut. Friends... Never in her life had she hated the word so much.

“Right, flying… Let’s go get Puddles, _friend_ ,” Viney cursed herself internally, and offered a smile at Em.

They walked together towards the griffin stables and Viney resisted the urge to take Emira’s hand. Friends played on repeat in her head. Did friends normally hold hands? She had never with Jerbo or Barcus, but maybe girl friends did? _Damnit_ , and she was back to thinking of Emira as her girlfriend. She had to get a hold of herself.

Thankfully Emira was either blissfully unaware of her inner turmoil or just chose to ignore it. Whatever the case, Viney was immensely grateful. She felt the back of Em’s hand brush her own… _Screw it_. Mustering up whatever courage she had left, Viney reached out and gently grasped Emira’s hand, still loose enough that if Em wanted to pull away she could. The tips of her ears burned when she felt the other girl’s hand squeeze tightly.

When they got to the stables they were still hand in hand, Viney excitedly explaining griffin flight mechanics to the bewildered Blight girl next to her.

“I’m telling you Emi, if you don’t lean the way you want to go, your griffin will have no idea what you want!” Viney exclaimed.

“Why don’t you just lightly tap them over the way you want to go,” Emira asked, genuinely curious.

“Puddles is like family to me, I wouldn’t kick my family,” Viney shrugged, petting her griffin’s beak.

“Clearly you are an only child,” Em chuckled.

Viney swung herself up onto Puddles’ back, landing as gently as possible and outstretched a hand to help Emira up. The other girl took it gingerly, giving Puddles a nervous smile, but relaxed when the griffin cooed reassuringly. Emira sat behind her and didn’t hesitate to wrap her arms around Viney’s waist firmly, sighing contentedly. 

Leaning forward to pat the side of Puddles’ neck, Viney braced herself for the take off, gripping with her knees and thighs, festing her hands on either side of the griffin’s feathery neck. Puddles leapt from the ground and flapped her powerful wings, and in no time they were soaring in the clouds.

She felt Emira unwind one arm from around her and lean back slightly, Viney craned her neck to look at the other witch. Emira had one hand stretched up, running it through a passing cloud, a look of awe adorned her pretty features. Viney filed the memory away, maybe she could have it extracted and framed.

The temperature was dropping, but neither girl could bring themselves to care, too wrapped up in the scenery and each other. The body heat radiating off of Emira was more enough to wash a feeling of safety over Viney and a smile she couldn’t wipe off her face.

Viney knew now was the perfect time to ask but as she opened her mouth to do so Puddles let out a startled screech. The brunette’s eyes widened as she watched ice fragments crystalize on the tips of the griffin’s wings, weighing them down and making it considerably harder to fly.

“You’ve got to be shitting me,” Viney muttered darkly.

“What’s wrong,” Emira squeaked.

“Remember when we first met?” the other girl nodded. “Well I think you might get an up close and personal look at my point of view that night.” Emira’s grip on her waist considerably tightened as she buried her head into Viney’s shoulder.

Urging Puddles into a dive, Viney watched the ground hurtling towards them sharply, the flakes of ice flying off of the griffin's wings as the wind whipped around them. Viney had to time this just right to get away only unscathed. An empty clearing in the forest was rapidly approaching and last second Viney tugged at the feathers on Puddles neck. The griffin unfurled her wings, holding them up into the wind to slow them before they reached the unforgiving ground.

The force of the gale was more than griffin or girl anticipated, sending them careening off course towards the trees. Twisting her body, Puddles reached her claws out as a brace and they sunk into the nearest tree, bringing them to a screeching halt, throwing both Emira and Viney off into the grass.

Shaking off the sudden shock Viney moved towards the Blight girl, who lay sprawled out on the grass. Her chest stuttered unevenly, and for a minute Viney was afraid she was crying, until the audible laughter bubbled out of Emira’s mouth. Em reached for Viney’s hand, pulling the brunette into the grass with her. As they laughed Puddles came over, a little worse for wear but otherwise unhurt, curling around the tops of their heads.

There would be another time to ask Emira out, but right now Viney was just going to enjoy the moment. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, you may have noticed that I finally put how many chapters this will be, and we're a little over halfway through it. I will have some chapters after Em and Viney get together but I'm honestly not really sure where to go with this. It feels like a series of connected one-shots more than anything else, and I prefer to write more plot based things. That being said I plan on completing this and starting something new as well!  
> I'm working on drafting my new story, Fifteen Days to Make Her Fall, and I'll publish the first chapter after this wraps up!  
> Shoutouts go to the amazing Tonykins2000, JuanDekker, AkiBlossom, 28776865657a6529, Hiiiiiitsme, Simplex, KeyDaWolf, NoirAngel011, and Leila_DaxX3! Everyone's comments have made me want to keep writing and finish this fic!  
> -Wolfe


	11. Sea Monsters Always Ruin a Good Time

Emira had never been so nervous to go to the beach in her entire life. Nervous energy seeped from her, as if she were a sponge that had just been wrung out. For you see, it wasn’t just Emira and her siblingings going, oh no, Viney was invited as well. Emira almost fainted when Luz had asked her at lunch, just when she thought she was recovering from her nerves around the brunette, her composure was once again shattered. She, Emira Blight, wealthy troublemaker, was reduced to a blushing mess as soon as she saw those familiar green eyes. And the worst part was she could never gauge Viney’s feelings for her at all, platonic or romantic, the other girl was stone faced. Emira felt as though she had put all of her Hexes Hold’em cards on the table but Viney’s were still kept close to her chest.

As frustrating as it was, Emira wouldn’t change whatever she had with the other girl for the world. Em couldn’t help the feeling of pride when she had become friends with Viney. She no longer let her parents, especially her mother, dictate who she could and couldn’t be friends with. Sure there had been consequences once they had found out, starting with Amity’s new friendship with a human and rekindling her friendship with Willow, but both twins had stepped in and came clean about their friendships with the multi-track kids as well as Luz. It was one of the most daunting things the siblings had ever done, but the feeling of liberation Em got when they all stood together was indescribable.

Now for her next daunting task, hold a conversation with Viney at Lake Lacuna. When Luz and Viney had asked them, both Amity and Emira, spoke the same words at the same time, without even looking at each other. “Me go to the beach with you? Lounging around in cute swimsuits… Swimming?” It was completely unplanned and the other girls look at them as if they had grown a second head. Edric on the other hand was wheezing so hard he almost passed out. Both the Blight girls were teased mercilessly by Ed on the way home. “We have to go straight… too bad you two can’t think that way” and more simply, “You are such gay disasters that I’m now the superior sibling.” Both of his sisters wordlessly agreed to show him how superior he really was, Emira performing a spell to zip his mouth shut while Amity had summoned her abomination to toss him into a nearby bush.

Em was currently pawing through her dresser, taking out every swimsuit she owned and laying it out on her bed. A part of her wanted to dress for comfort, knowing Luz would undoubtedly get into something that involved running, but a larger, more overwhelming, part of her wanted to dress to impress. She ultimately decided on a polka dotted red and white one piece, it had a triangular cut out above her belly button, that went from either side of her waist to the top point meeting at her solar plexus. It was strapless, making it a big hazard, but to impress Viney, she would put her trust into the underwire and padding.

“Emira! Let’s go, I don’t want to be late,” Amity called from the hallway. “And get Ed!” Emira threw on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, slipping on her slides and she made her way over to the joint bathroom door in between her room and her brother’s.

“Ed! Move it! Stop admiring your nonexistent muscles in the mirror,” she called while banging her fist into the door. She heard an offended gasp from inside the bathroom. “Excuse you! I am well proportioned for a boy of my age! And I totally have muscles, I’m freaking jacked you hater!” Emira scoffed and rolled her eyes, but didn’t send another verbal jab her brother’s way.

Soon all three Blight children had assembled in the foyer. Amity, ever the responsible one, had packed the beach bag, filled to the brim with towels and sunscreen. Mittens quickly passed it off to Ed, who groaned and pretended to stagger. They pushed open the ridiculously big double doors and headed off to the Lake, not once looking back at the looming mansion.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Emira’s heart seized when she caught sight of Viney, who had already set up her towel next to Luz. The brunette was in a fairly modest black one piece. A sliver of skin was visible, from her collarbones to just above her navel, criss-crossed strands of fabric went from either side, making them almost look like stitches. To make the possibility of Emira even talking go out the window was when she saw Viney turn to speak to Luz, revealing the backless cutout in her swimsuit. She stood rooted to the spot, chanting friends like a mantra in her head internally, until Ed nudged her, sending her stumbling forward.

She clumsily laid her towel next to Viney’s, the emerald eyed girl giving her a serene smile. She ignored the pulse roaring in her ears as she pulled off the shorts and t-shirt, trying to recline in a natural, not panicked way.

“Wow Emi… You look stunning,” VIney smiled genuinely. Emira turned her head to come face to face with the green eyes that she adored… That were much closer than she expected! Her body froze, too torned between leaning forward to close the distance and falling back as if she had been burned.

“Ummm… uh… I-I do?” she sputtered out intelligently. Green eyes scanned Emira’s form, starting at the top of her head going to the tips of her toes. Once, then twice. Em felt as though she was on fire but couldn’t look away, as if she had been pinned by Viney’s gaze alone.

“Yeah, you most definitely do.”

"Well if I'm stunning, then you're positively gorgeous."

Emira didn't know who leaned forward first, but suddenly they were inching their way closer to each other. Viney’s hand covered her own, and Emira was able to make out the splash of freckles dusting the other witch’s cheeks. Her eyes began to flutter closed, feeling her nose slide against Viney’s.

Then the moment broke as the feeling of icy cold water enveloped her. Her eyes popped open to see that Viney had retreated as well, her hair soaking wet much like Emira’s. The maniacal laughter quickly revealed the culprit. Edric was doubled over, positively howling, with an empty bucket at his feet.

“ _ Water  _ you love birds up too?” he said, wiping a tear from his eye. Both girls looked at him with absolute murder in their eyes. “This isn’t going to be a  _ fishue _ , is it? OH  _ CARP _ !”

Edric sprinted down to the water, his twin hot on his heel. Diving into the water after him, an epic splash battle commenced. Viney smartly had stayed on the beach and watched in amusement as the twins got each other into a headlock at the same time.

“Why did you do that?” Emira hissed under her breath.

“I needed to use my water puns on someone! I had an opportunity and I took it, sue me  _ Emi _ ,” he whispered back.

“Only Viney can call me that, and you know it... Shithead,” Em glared at her brother, tightening her hold.

“ _ Beach _ .”

“FOR THE LOVE OF TITAN!” Amity screamed at them from her seat next to Luz, a manuscript in each of their laps. “Is one normal outing with you guys too much to ask for? What are you? Five?”

The twins let go of each other, giving their younger sister apologetic looks, then going back to glaring at each other.

“Don’t sit next to me.”

“ _ Currently _ that is the last thing I want to do.”

Emira made her way back to her seat next to Viney, while Edric enticed the excitable human and their reluctant sister to build a sand monument with him.

“Sorry about him, he’s a dick,” Emira muttered bashfully, rubbing the back of her neck. Viney chuckled and bit her lip.

“Well he does have an annoying habit of interrupting us,” Viney smiled cautiously at her.

“Interrupting us? What do you mean exactly?” giddy hope blossomed wildly in the taller witch. There could only be one meaning behind that, right?

“I think you know,” the brunette said, purposefully flicking her eyes to Emira’s lips. Red spread across the taller witch’s face like a blaze, her heart galloping unsteadily. There was no way she could have possibly misinterpreted that. Relief gave way to a buzz of excitement, she fidgeted in place, but it wasn’t enough. Emira wanted to kiss Viney right then and there, asking her to be her girlfriend, if it wasn’t for her idiotic brother stealing glances at them and snickering she probably would have.

“Ey yo!” A deep gurgling voiced sound from in front of them. “What are ya doing on me front lawn?” A giant figure began to rise from the water, covered in hundreds of swamp green eyes.

“Time to go!”

“Right behind you!” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone guess what... It's my birthday... whoop dee do. I'm going to take a second and ask you all a question. Is it valid to be upset that literally all you're friends forgot your birthday? Even though it's quarantine sort of. My parents said not to take it personally but that doesn't change that I'm actually pretty hurt about it. I don't know, I'm in that stage where I'm trying to numb out but I'm still kinda salty. And definitely debating becoming a mysterious loner.
> 
> Anyway hopefully whatever mood I'm in personally doesn't affect the chapter too much. Shoutouts to Rachel_Nicole and FriendsOfMara!
> 
> -Wolfe


	12. This is Where I Started Falling for You

Viney couldn’t help but fidget as they walked, the tension between them was palpable. Viney had made peace with her feelings for Emira Blight a long time ago, she had even cast out a line and Emira had most definitely taken the bait. Now the question wasn’t if they liked each other in that way, it was painfully obvious that they did, but who would ask the other out first.

Both quickly began recognizing the other’s attempts; Viney had tried when they went into the shortcuts room, then Emira had tried as she walked the brunette to class, on and on it went but they never succeeded. The one common factor was that they were always, without fail, interrupted. Usually by Edric, being the self satisfied little shit that he was, but occasionally by Luz, Jerbo, and even Amity.

But today was different, almost as if fate itself had gotten tired watching them tip-toe around each other. The electricity that steadily built had become even more noticeable, it shocked Viney every time her hand brushed Emira’s as they walked. It was almost as if there was a magnetic pull between them, and pulling away became infinitely more difficult the more time they spent together.

So when Viney got a witch anatomy project from one of her Healing classes and brought up that she needed supplies at lunch, her heart stuttered when only Emira volunteered to accompany her to the market. Who was she to pass up such a good opportunity. But Viney quickly realized that Emira was leading them off track.

“Uh Em? The market is the other way,” Viney tilted her head curiously when she saw the tips of Emira’s ears turn red.

“I know, I just… Well you’ll have to wait and see,” a earnest crooked smile spread across the taller witch’s lips. Viney raised an eyebrow but quickened her pace to keep up with Emira.

“Do you remember the night we first met?” Emira asked suddenly, her golden eyes not quite meeting Viney’s.

“Of course. You looked stunning in yellow,” Viney proudly smiled, watching Em’s face heat up again. She recently came to the conclusion that Emira was a mess when she was complimented, and Viney couldn’t ignore the thrill of seeing the other girl blush, especially when she knew that she was the one who put it there.

“O-oh, well then,” Emira stuttered, but shook her head slightly. Viney watched as the other witch shook her head slightly, collecting herself. Resolve turned her golden eyes molten and a confident smirk set in, Viney blushed at the unexpected intensity.

“When you lent me your jacket that night, which you look stupidly attractive in by the way, I knew I had to talk to you again,” Viney bit her lip, the openness was new. But certainly not bad.

“All because I looked good in a leather jacket? Hate to say it, but that’s predictable of you,” Viney rolled her eyes and smiled teasingly, elbowing Emira gently who smirked.

“I’m an illusionist, we’re all about visuals,” she tossed her braid flippantly, but made definitive eye contact with Viney. “But even though you’re cute, it wasn’t the main reason I needed to talk to you again.”  
“Then what was?”

“You treated me differently than most people do,” the taller witch said slyly. Viney raised an eyebrow, “Is that a good or bad thing?”

“It was more so intriguing than anything else,” Emira said, fiddling with her choker. “I’m not blind, neither are my siblings, we all know how people look at us. The only reason they try to get close is because they want something.”

“Well that’s shitty,” Viney stated matter of factly. Emira scoffed but her eyes shined with a dry mirth. Viney couldn’t help but clench her jaw, she could never relate to what any of the Blight children went through. Especially not their home life. Viney had always been relatively invisible at Hexside, all her dad wanted for her was to chase her own dreams. But Em’s life was planned out for her, from what coven she’ll join to where she’ll be living. Maybe even who she was supposed to be marrying.

Viney used to believe that the Blights were spoiled trust fund babies, but after getting to know each of them it was almost laughable how wrong she was. And never in her any of her fantasies did she expect to develop any feelings other than annoyance for the Blight girl standing next to her.

“It is what it is,” Em shrugged, Viney poked Em’s side and frowned at the golden eyed witch. “But when you meet someone who knows you’re so much more than your name… It’s pretty damn memorable.”

“You know I would never use you right?” Viney said seriously, gently pulling on Em’s wrist in an attempt to get her to look.

“I do. I think I’ve known since the beginning,” Emira blushed. Viney gave her a toothy smile, squeezing the taller girl’s hand as her heart fluttered in her chest.

“Well that’s good,” Viney said. “I never even considered that when we first met.” Emira laughed, her shoulders shaking slightly.

“I guess you’re the exception to the Blight curse then,” Em smiled, albeit there was a lingering sadness in her eyes.

“Curse?” Viney asked, not sure Em was kidding or not. Living in the Boiling Isles there was a very real possibility that a vengeful magic user hexed the family, Viney doubted that any of the children would’ve been responsible for getting themselves cursed but from what she heard Odalia and Alador Blight could be nasty pieces of work.

“I’m joking,” Em smiled crookedly. “It just can feel like that sometimes. I mean Ed and I weren’t the best people to be around, I’m not denying anything, and we did some hurtful things. And everyone knows how Amity used to be. I can’t help but feel like if our parents weren’t totally useless it would have saved us a lot of hardships.”

“Em,” Viney whispered, halting her pace. The taller girl stopped as well and turned to face the brunette. “You may have done some crappy things but you recognize it and feel guilty. You’re not perfect, I’d never ask you to be, but you are trying to be better. That’s all that matters, and I honestly really admire you for it,” Viney trailed off, heat flooding to the tips of her ears because of the look Emira was giving her. The other girl’s eyes were soft and a rare, genuine smile graced her lips. Her cheeks were tinted a lovely shade of pink and Emira was looking at Viney as if she held the secrets of the universe.

Suddenly Emira spun, pulling the brunette behind her. Viney stumbled in a pointless effort to keep up with the other girl. Viney silently cursed her petite stature and Em’s model height.

“Emi hold up!” she cried uselessly. “Where are we going? What’s the rush?”

“I have something to show you,” Em said. “And if we don’t go now I might kiss you right here,” Viney felt her heartbeat begin to thunder in her chest, not completely sure if Emira had meant for her to hear the last part.

They strayed off the path and unto an old beast trail through the dense forest. Rocks and fallen leaves crunched under their feet as Viney tried to piece together where Emira could possibly be taking her. Light filtered through the treetops creating little beams around the two witches.

Emira stopped so unexpectedly that Viney almost slammed into her back. Em turned to Viney, catching the brunette’s quizzical look. With a shy smile Em stepped aside to reveal their location.

Viney’s attention was immediately caught by the sizable light blue words, formed by illusion magic, that said, _Viney will you go out with me?_ And then there was a smaller sentence underneath that Viney had to squint in order to read, _Please say yes, I’m sick of listening to Em’s pining!_ On the ground was a blanket with an assortment of sweet treats and a bouquet of wildflowers. Her eyes skimmed around the rest of the clearing, widening when she saw the splintered trees and claw-like gashes in the ground.

She whirled around to face Emira who was looking at the ground sheepishly, obviously awaiting the brunette’s answer.

“So,” Emira cleared her throat awkwardly, golden eyes flitting up to meet green ones. Viney threw her arms around Em’s neck, burying her face into the taller girl’s shoulder.

“I’ll take that as a yes then,” Em chuckled breathlessly.

“Of course it’s a yes, you idiot!”

They pulled apart, beaming at each other, Em’s hands gently resting on Viney’s waist, and the brunette’s arms were still around the taller girl’s neck.

The subtle electricity that always seemed to crackle between them flared up with a renewed vigor. Viney moved one hand to Emira’s cheek, brushing the soft skin light with her thumb. Em tightened her grip around Viney’s waisted drawing her closer, until they were flush against each other. Viney rolled up onto her tiptoes, the hand not on Em’s cheek sliding to rest gently in malachite hair. Em leaned down, noses brushing, breath mingling, lips only inches apart. 

Their lips connected and a jolt went up Viney’s spine. Emira’s lips were impossibly soft as they moved against her own hesitantly. Viney’s hand tangled into the hair at the base of Em’s, neck gently tugging, earning a soft gasp. Em’s hands slid from her waist to her back, gently biting Vineys bottom lip, a whimper embarrassingly escaping the brunette’s lips, before pulling away. 

Viney blushed and looked away while Emira sent her an ecstatic smile. Both girls marveled at the other, silently wondering how they had gotten so lucky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys I am so sorry for the wait, it was not my plan trust me. My dumbass self did a bunch of stupid things (at the top of the list was an allergic reaction because I ate too much microwave popcorn and walking in high heels to school, only to have to walk back carrying five textbooks). And my school is on something illegal, we have 75 minute class blocks... I feel bad for my ADHD freshman brother. But anyway... Thank you all for you're birthday wishes, they meant a lot!
> 
> Also... They finally kissed! I have been so excited to write this chapter and publish it. I think Emira would be the more 'romantic' of the two, she loves big gestures for special occasions. Viney is romantic too, but she does more everyday things, like opening doors for Em and picking flowers for her on the way to school.
> 
> We're over 700 kudos and 9,000+ hits, you guys are absolutely insane and it's magnificent! For those who came over here for my minor inclusion of Lumity let me know if you want me to do a story about them because I have a few ideas but given that I'm fours years older than them it's a bit harder for me to write them, but if there's enough of a demand I'll do my best. I know that if I had written this fic about them this fic could've been much larger but I guess I just was intrigued by Viney and Em, maybe just because they have cool personalities and not a lot of screen time. Also for my Vinira fans don't worry I have a second school fic coming and a Halloween special.
> 
> Shoutouts for the week go to Prinxly, RedHoodie21, EmberTheBee, Chaotic_Blues, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, APhoenixRambles, popcorn_gamer_1231, BlazecamBR, whitebeltwriter, Me, Markthewolf, healingliebe, :)))), a_pretty_decent_human, Panthersprite, Shakespeare22, SugarAndSpice! You're all incredible and I'm glad this story makes you all happy! You're comments have made me so much more confident with myself and my writing, this started as something to entertain during Quarantine after a series of unlucky events but you all have made this so much bigger than I could've imagined. 
> 
> -Wolfe


	13. First Date (Part 1)

Emira once again found herself rummaging through her dresser and pawing through her closet. She had always taken pride in her appearance, her mother had ingrained it, but she had never cared this much. But even still she never felt her nerves this jumbled and her heart beating as if it might jump out of her chest at any moment.

She knew Viney would like whatever she wore, that much was obvious, but it was their first real date today and Emira felt an overwhelming need to impress the brunette. So here she was again stressing herself in her closet at the vast amounts of clothes her mother bought that she’d prefer to burn instead of wear. She had always kept a small box hidden away under a rack of shoes of clothes she bought herself, hidden away from the scorning eyes of her mother.

She pulled out a black tank top with lace trimming along the hem and down her back in a triangular pattern. She paired it with a navy, black, and red plaid skirt that ended a couple inches above the knee. Modest enough, but strikingly different then she would normally be allowed to do. Slipping on some black ankle boots, Emira scrutinized her outfit in the mirror and happily found no flaws.

She sat herself down in front of her vanity and pulled out a tube of eyeliner, beginning to draw on a wing. The door opened violently, Em jerked the liner across her brow in surprise. In strolled her mother, dress trailing behind her menacingly and a tight, immaculate bun of green hair perched on the top of her head. Odalia’s disapproving gaze left blisters on her back and the click of her mother’s tongue solidified Emira’s unease. 

“Darling what in Titan’s name are you wearing?” her mother gasped. Emira knew she was being mocked by the sharpness in her mother’s eyes and the sneer on her lips. Em opened her mouth in rebuttal but the raise of her mother’s hand was warning enough to stay silent.

“Where do you think you’re going looking like that,” her mother studied her. “Why dear, you look like a harlot.” Emira struggled to keep a scowl from marring her face, she knew talking back to her mother wasn’t an option if she wanted to see Viney later.

“Just to the market mother,” she said, struggling to keep her tone even. “I have a few things to pick up for school.” 

“Lying to me Emira,” Odalia scolded her. “I thought I had raised a lady not a deceiving malefactor.”.

“It’s the truth mother,” Em spat out through gritted teeth.

“Strike two darling,” a syrupy smile crossed her mothers lips, while the woman's eyes held an unbridled resentment. “For your sake sweetheart, don’t get to strike three.”

Emira weighed her options as she held her mother’s gaze defiantly. Odalia knew that she was lying about her plans, but unless Ed or Mittens had said anything about her date, which she seriously doubted, then her mother shouldn’t know anything. How could she have found out? 

“Dear I can see the wheels in your head turning, but I’m growing impatient,” Odalia smirked. “The truth. Today please.” 

“I’m going out to dinner,” she finally surrendered. “With a friend.”

“Well I applaud you for the half truth, as it is progress,” Odalia kept a pleasant smile on her face. “You don’t look like a strumpet for just a friend dearest.”

“Are you implying that I’m a slut mother?” Emira asked tursely, hurt but not at all surprised.

“Well I am most definitely not implying you look like a halfway decent lady,” Odalia smirked. “I could just see you on a dirty street corner somewhere.”

“I’m sure you’d think that,” Em growled, tears that she refused to let slip burned the back of her eyes.

“Attitude dear,” Odalia waved her hand. “Whomever you’re meeting, I do not approve in the slightest if this is how you behave under their influence.”

“You don’t even know her!” Emira strained to keep her voice level. Odalia sent her a calculating look as if to strip her to the bone and twist her knife even further into Emira’s heart. 

“Mother, the gardener forgot to color the roses violet again,” Amity’s voice sounded from down the stairs. Her mother sighed, temporarily neglecting her argument with her eldest daughter, rubbing her temples in frustration.

“I swear, why even pay the help if they do an unsatisfactory job,” Odalia mercifully turned on her heel and strutted elegantly out of Emira’s bedroom, leaving the door ajar behind her. As she got up to close the door, she caught sight of her father leaning against the wall by the staircase. Alador sipped from his mug disinterestedly, eyes unfocused and bloodshot, as if he had forgotten where he was. Em rolled her eyes as she shut her door, going back to her vanity.

She took in the sight reflected in the mirror, smudged eyeliner up to her forehead and a broken, almost dead look left her face gaunt. A gentle knock sounded on her and Ed’s shared bathroom door, but Emira made no sound of acknowledgement. Edric gently pushed open the door, Amity standing at his side.

“Em you’re going to be late,” Mittens said gently, picking up the makeup wipes from the vanity and handing them to her.

“If you don’t feel up to it, I’m sure Viney will understand,” Ed soothed.

“I’ve ruined everything and I haven’t even seen her yet,” Em chuckled mirthlessly, Amity and Ed exchanged a concerned look.

“Emira, just because mom is a bitter old crone doesn't mean she’s right,” Ed said. “We all know all she cares about is her social standing.”

“Dad isn’t any better either,” Amity added, hopelessness creeping into her own voice. “Not sure why he stays.”

“Doubt he could do any better,” Em said humorlessly.

“Okay we’ve all established that our parents suck,” Ed said. “But we can’t let them get in the way of our happiness anymore. We’ve lost our childhoods to them and the majority of our teenage years, we don’t owe them anything!”

“We’re here to help Em,” Amity said resolutely. “Now sit still while I fix your nails.”

“Think of us as your personal stylists,” Ed said excitedly, moving behind her to start braiding the underside of her hair close to the scalp, then wrapping the rest around the loose hair into an elegant ponytail. 

In record time they were able to make Emira more presentable then she was twenty minutes ago, even managing to fix the disaster that was her makeup. Both her siblings looked reasonably proud of themselves as they ushered her out the main doors, keeping a watchful eye out for their parents.

“Thank you guys, it means a lot,” Em turned to thank them, earning matching bright smiles from her siblings.  
“Honestly it was fun,” Ed chirped as Amity nodded. “We used to do this all the time.”

“Until mom said it didn’t suit a boy to be into ‘girlish’ things,” Amity rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, yeah, she’s an awful wench,” Ed waved his hand dismissively. “We’re all aware.”

“What if she finds out about Viney?” Emira shifted nervously, glancing at the empty windows.

“She won’t,” Amity reassured. “We’ll make sure of it.”

“But what if she does?”

“Em, you’re stalling

“But-”

“Sweet baby Titan in a thunderstorm, GO!”

 **_~~~~~~~~~~~~~_ ** ****

Emira nervously wrapped her knuckles of the front door of the rundown abode, Viney had kindly warned her that her dad would be home. They were still in the early stages of their official relationship, even though they had feelings for eachother for a long time. Meeting her girlfriend's dad before their first official date was incredibly nerve wracking.

She steeled herself as she heard heavy footsteps approach the door and the lock turning. In the doorway stood a heavyset, but muscular man in his late forties dressed in a Construction Coven uniform. His brown hair was buzzed close to his scalp and instead of green eyes to match Viney’s, they were deep brown. He was at least a head taller then Emira herself and was slightly hunched over from obvious back pain. Despite his intimidating height he wore a warm smile and had an easy going look in his eyes.

“So ye must be the lass Viney’s been gaunnae on aboot,” he said, humor barely concealed as he glanced behind him into the house. “Ye must be Emira.”

“Yeah that’s me,” Em shifted nervously. “It’s nice to meet you Mr-”

“Nane of the formalities girl, call me Shamus,” he said with a laugh. “Viney’s still prettying ’erself up, come on in.”

He moved to the side and ushered her gently into the warm home, leading her into the living room. It was just as she remembered, a worn couch was pushed against the back wall with a ripped leather reclining chair to its side. A wooden coffee table was in the center of the living room and a bookshelf was pushed into the far corner. Shamus gestured for her to sit down as he retrieved something from the bookcase.

He placed a book with a worn binding on the table then settled into his leather reclining chair. Emira sent him a puzzled look, he leaned forward and pushed the book towards her. She carefully opened the front cover to reveal a myriad of pictures of Shamus and Viney at various ages. She studied the first picture with a delighted smile to see Viney, no more than a year old, pouting in her crib.

“Ah aye,” Shamus chuckled when he caught sight of the picture. “She was a crabbit as a wee bairn.”

Emira continued to study the pictures as Shamus offered little stories to accompany each. She even burst out laughing when she saw a fourth year Viney’s emo phase.

“She insisted on dressin’ black as the earl of hell’s waistcoat,” Shamus rolled his eyes. “It made ‘er ‘appy, so I needn’t object.”

“You really must love her then,” Emira said wistfully. Shamus raised an eyebrow and gave her a proud smile.

“Aye, I do,” he nodded. “And I can see ye care too. Now I ain’t gaunnae threaten ye like a screwball, no point of that. But treat ‘er well please, she cares aboot ye too.”

“I promise,” Emira said honestly and Shamus gave her a gleaming grin. They continued chatting for a bit, Em learned that Shamus loved Puddles as much as Viney did, even if he thought he was too big to ride the griffin. He also liked photography and also took just about every picture in the album himself, wanting Viney to remember all the times that they were able to do things together.

Viney eventually emerged dressed in ripped blue jeans over black fishnets, a black band shirt, with her red leather jacket over the top. Her hair was still held up in a bun with the red spiky band, fish-hook earring gleaming, and the only makeup she wore was mascara. Viney immediately looked at the book and blushed, while Emira found her face warming as well for completely different reasons.

“Da really?” Viney sighed. “Breaking out the baby pictures. I left you two alone for ten minutes!”   


“Oh keep yer heid Viney,” Shamus exclaimed playfully. “Yer girlfriend was gaunnae see them eventually.”

“I didn’t think today would be that day Da!”

“Rubbish!”

Viney took Emira’s hand and helped her off the couch, kissing the taller witch’s cheek sweetly. Leading her toward the door, and whispered when they were out of earshot,

“You look stunning kitten.” Emira flushed not at all used to the pet name, but loved it more then she was willing to admit.

“You took my line cutie.”

“Ye two are sickenin’,” Shamus chuckled. “Now let me take a picture.”

“Da...”

“I dinnae want to hear it,” he said, positioning his camera. “It’s yer first date!” Viney rolled her eyes good naturedly and relented, wrapping her arm around Emira’s waist as the other girl wrapped her own around the brunette’s shoulders. They smiled brightly and tried their best not to blink at the sudden, harsh flash.

Viney left her side in order to quickly hug her father goodbye before taking her place at Em’s side, intertwining their fingers again. Emira raised her free hand to give Shamus a shy wave and got an impish smile in return. Closing the door softly behind them the two girls made their way down the street.

“Ready gorgeous?” Emira asked, not at all bothering to hide her excitement. Viney smiled brightly at her and leaned up to peck her lips.

“Of course.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, I have another update for you all! Sorry there isn't too much Vinira yet but I really wanted to write about the parents. Next chapter will be exclusively about the date.
> 
> But now that you've finally met Viney's dad, what do you think of him? Since I literally have free rein I thought that this would be the best way to give some more context to Viney's home life. Also Odalia and Alador... Odalia just seems like the controlling type, I mean she wanted her children to freaking match, so I could see her completely saying out of line things to her kids about their appearances. Alador definitely spikes his morning appleblood with something much stronger, I think it's the only way he can deal with his marriage at this point.
> 
> Anyway comments are always appreciated and shoutouts go to Psiah, Chuck_Vic_Norris, Snowy_Owl, Werederg, Shakespeare22, DayFiction83 (harukas_knight), reficuls1706, jollyllama, littlemissperfect145, RabidSquid, Culito sucio, Tired_VWORP, and AMysteriousWr1ter! I'm glad everyone loves these girls as much as I do and feels like I'm doing them justice. Also if you like my writing style but want a bit longer of a word count than this one, I have two others up that I'm proud of so if you have time and interest check them out.
> 
> -Wolfe

**Author's Note:**

> I am a absolute sucker for Emira and Viney (and the Owl House in general) and felt the need to add my own take. I may leave this as a one-shot type of deal but if people enjoys it I'll probably add more chapters when I feel like it. I'm also more than happy to write some of you suggestions. Let me know if you guys like it, feedback is always appreciated!  
> -Wolfe


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